Dying Breed
by LothCat
Summary: Not long after the events on Gorse, Kanan and Hera investigate why the Bridger Transmissions have suddenly stopped. They uncover a little more than they were expecting. AU Gen. No Pairing.
1. Chapter 1

Kanan tried not to look overly frustrated as he slid into yet another rickety bar chair, bringing his drink with him. If a lead didn't pan out soon he was tempted to just give up and stop slowly nursing the one drink and order something for real, instead of slowly draining his credits on useless information gathering.

"They say you're the one to talk to if you want to find someone." Kanan spoke smoothly, thankfully holding back his tongue and not adding on 'just like the last dozen people I've spoken to.'

"Might be, maybe. You Imperial?" The rather run down looking Devronian gave him a look as Kanan waved the bartender over, sliding another credit chip away to pay for his new (i)friend's(i) drink.

"Hardly." Kanan chuckled that, leaning back in his chair to watch him.

"Then who are you looking for?" The Devronian asked

"The Bridgers." Kanan spoke quietly, waiting to see if he shut down like everyone else. Instead he got a bark of laughter.

"Well I know you're not Imperial then or you'd already know. Probably long cold ashes in some incinerator somewhere, poor stupid souls." The Devronian waved a hand, accepting a drink from the bartender and tossing it back eagerly enough.

"If they're dead then how come you're the first person willing to admit they've heard of them?" Kanan said bluntly. He had expected something similar. When Hera said the two of them were going to investigate why her contacts on Lothal had abruptly cut off all communications Kanan's first thought had been capture or execution, but Hera wanted to investigate to be sure. After six months of no-contact, Kanan hadn't been very hopeful they'd find anything worth the trip.

"Because they were traitors to the glorious Empire." The Devronian said the last part sarcastically. "Terrorists, rabble rousers, and you stand too close to such obvious targets for Imperial punishment, sometimes they are not such perfect shots, eh?" He chuckled again, amused at his own joke. "So no, you are not likely to find too many who knew the Bridgers. So sorry if they were friends of yours."

"More friends of a friend." Kanan shook his head lightly, finishing off the last of his beer and standing. It was more than he'd gotten before, and worth looking into.

"Then tell your friend that was their friend that they have my condolences." The Devronian spoke before turning away, conversation over.

Kanan made his way out to give Hera the bad news.

* * *

"What are we doing out here again?" Kanan grumbled, walking through the quiet streets. From what he could tell there wasn't officially a curfew for anyone not on Imperial business yet, but most places in the city being out at night was heavily frowned on and it was likely only a matter of time.

"I didn't say, but since you're so curious. Look around you, see many empty lots?" Hera spoke quietly as they walked through the dim light.

"Now that you mention it, no." Kanan glanced around, all of the available space was used, like most cities. It wasn't the nicest part of town, but it likely wasn't the worst either.

"So why would there be a blank space on the city map right where a residence should be? Not even designated as an empty lot, it's just missing." Hera sounded smug at her sleuthing. She'd been pragmatic about the news when Kanan had told her of the Bridger's supposed fate, disappointed but not heartbroken, and determined to find if they'd left anything behind.

"Maybe it's unusable for some reason?" Kanan offered, but in matters like this he'd learned to trust Hera's investigation skills.

"Or it's marked off because everyone would rather our friends have never existed. " Hera stepped closer to a building to check the numbers, then kept going.

"If that's the case, wouldn't they have destroyed it?" Kanan said skeptically.

"That attracts more attention than a house that's just empty." Hera sounded confident, leading the way and letting Kanan follow.

It didn't take too much longer before they were both standing outside a building. On it was condemned signs brightly stenciled onto and around the door, with warnings to keep out under Imperial order.

"What do you think, this look like it might be the place?" Hera tried the door, then started opening the panel beside it, getting out tools to pick the lock.

"Alright, I'll admit it, it looks pretty likely. They might have cleaned it out already though." Kanan stood nearby without getting in her way, to let her work.

"Maybe. It's worth looking into at least. They might have missed something." Hera finished with the doors and they slid partway open before sticking, Kanan just reached out to shove them the rest of the way for them to get inside, pushing them back closed when they were both in. They both turned on their glow rods, with the windows boarded and the door closed behind them it was unlikely anyone passing by would see the light.

"Looks like we're not the first to ignore the signs to keep out." Kanan wrinkled his nose at the smell, shining his light around. There were obvious, if sloppy signs of habitation. There were empty food containers around, and cloth piled mostly in one corner likely as some sort of bed.

"We should try to move quickly then, before whoever's staying here comes back. Look for any sort of secret compartment, they likely had somewhere they were keeping all their sensitive information." Hera moved over to the walls, scrutinizing them.

Kanan started towards one of the adjoining rooms, then paused when something didn't quite feel right. He backtracked, walking by the table again. It almost felt like a small change in vibration, almost like…. He crouched down, peering more carefully at the bottom of the table, feeling around it until he found a small catch.

"This looks promising." He pressed it, pushing, and the table slid out of the way to reveal a hole with a ladder.

"It does." Hera left off from checking the walls, going over to try and shine the light down the hole. "I'm going to check it out, keep an eye out up here in case we get visitors?"

"Got it." Kanan took his place off to the side, where he could cover both the hole and the doorway in, making sure his blaster was free in its holster while Hera vanished down the ladder.

"Jackpot. This is where everything was. Broadcasting equipment, data disks, there's a whole setup down here and none of it looks like it's been touched in months."

"Can you check the disks' contents?" Kanan glanced down, able to hear her moving around under the floor, but not able to see anything.

"I can, but most of it it'll be easier to check it back on the ship." Hera called quietly up from below.

Kanan was just starting to relax when he heard Hera make a small distressed sound. His blaster was in his hand before he could think about it. "Hera?"

"I'm fine. Just… I'm fine. Stay up there, I'll be up in a few minutes." Hera said, sounding tense. Kanan didn't like it much but he nodded, then felt foolish since there was no way for her to see it.

"Got it." Kanan slid his blaster back into his holster, glancing back at the door, and then it was right back in his hand at the sight of the doors starting to move. He stood tense as a very small figure stood in the partway open doorway, staring inside and looking… shocked? Surprised? Angry? Kanan didn't recognize the species, but it didn't look friendly. "We've got company."

Kanan could hear Hera moving, but he didn't take his eyes off the small being. It stood in the doorway, watching him with huge eyes and then finally blurting out a strange series of syllables.

"I don't understand. I don't suppose you speak Basic, huh?" Kanan waited, watching the other for any sign of comprehension. "We're not here to take your place, we just needed something from it. You probably didn't even know it was here, so can't miss it, right? " He kept his tone even. It was possible they didn't speak Basic but they understood it, or they might not understand it, they might not even be fully sentient either by nature or damage or disease. At least they didn't seem to be armed, they were carrying a few things but nothing that looked like a weapon. "Just stay calm and we'll be gone and you can go back to having this place all to yourself."

"Kanan." Hera spoke from behind him, but he didn't turn around. "Don't shoot him. Lower your weapon."

Kanan hesitated, then obeyed, the small being didn't come any closer, but it seemed to relax a little without a weapon being pointed at it, saying something in a questioning tone.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're saying." Hera said apologetically, moving around so she could stand beside Kanan. "I think I know who he is. Before I checked over one of the disks, to make sure we were in the right place. It has important information on it. There was also a holo of the Bridgers on it."

For the first time the small figure stepped closer. "Bridger?" It was said questioningly and a little sad, the figure shifting on bare pawlike feet still fairly far away.

"I knew there were two that I was in contact with, but they kept most information beyond that quiet for security reasons. I didn't know until I saw the holo that they had a child." Hera hesitated, crouching down and holding a hand out like she was trying to coax the little being closer. "Kanan, I think this is Ezra Bridger."

* * *

Chapter Notes - This is AU playing around with the timeline some. Hera's 19, Kanan's 23, and Ezra's 7


	2. Chapter 2

"What are we going to do about the kid?" Kanan had gotten the door closed again to avoid attracting attention. Ezra was still hesitant about coming too close to them, but it didn't look like the kid was going to try to bolt out into the night at any moment.

"I'm… not entirely sure." Hera had finished packing all of the information disks, but they were both delaying. It seemed wrong to just walk out and leave the kid. "Maybe someone will take him in."

"I'm not sure. People don't even want to talk about the Bridgers, the only person willing to wasn't exactly the kind of guy I'd trust to take care of a tooka, much less a kid." Kanan felt a little stab of guilt when Ezra perked his ears up at the word Bridgers, then when there wasn't anything else he slowly hunkered back down.

"If we can get them off planet we could find someone to take him." Hera said speculatively.

"Maybe someone else of that species. They'd know more about raising a kid."Kanan pointed out. "Do you recognize which species he is anyway?"

"That would be difficult. Ezra's a Lasat, but Lasan… fell. There are very few Lasat left, and none on Lasan." Hera spoke quietly.

"Oh." Kanan looked at the kid with a little more sympathy."We'll find someone to take him in. If we can get him to come with us."

* * *

In the end, it didn't take very much to get Ezra to decide to tag along. Kanan got the feeling that the kid hadn't seen any friendly adult faces in a long time and he was still young enough to trust them. Kanan was both grateful, and profoundly glad they found him first. A small kid of a now rare species meant the sort of people who'd find him valuable weren't the sorts Kanan ever wanted to deal with. He'd made a lot of shady moral decisions in his life, but he'd thankfully never been in so desperate a state that he'd had to deal with slavers. He still knew of them, any crew that ran illicit cargo like the Ghost sometimes did got those sorts of offers. Hera, thankfully, was just as disgusted with the practice as he was, maybe more so which wasn't terribly surprising. He knew that while Hera was careful about how much she revealed about her contacts she'd make sure whoever arranged to take the kid would have Ezra's best interests at heart.

Once Ezra latched onto Hera's glove he didn't seem to be in any hurry to let go, clinging like he expected them to suddenly vanish. They made it back to the ship well before dawn and Kanan relaxed once they were inside.

"Think you could keep an eye on the kid? I can start the disks decoding and update Fulcrum about what, and who, we found." Hera used a ration bar to distract him, gently freeing herself from his grip.

"Not a problem. I can handle one kid." Kanan waved a hand towards the rooms.

"Uh huh. Just try to keep him from damaging anything or getting hurt." Hera said, making her way to her room, to seal it up for privacy.

* * *

Kanan kept an eye on Ezra. He was fairly sure the Lasat kid had investigated every inch of the cargo hold by now and had started trying to get the crates open. They were empty, the hover pads in them busted and waiting on repairs or recycling, so he didn't bother to tell him no. He hoped Hera taking her time in her room contacting Fulcrum was a good sign. Hera made her way to the hold just as Ezra figured out how to get the lid off the first crate.

"What did he say?" Kanan glanced over at her, then back to making sure the kid didn't manage to hurt himself somehow. They were going to do their best to keep Chopper distracted and away from him too, hopefully the temperamental droid would just ignore a kid, but they didn't need either of them trying to damage each other.

"The good news is Fulcrum says he can take him and find a family for him." Hera said, sounding like she was choosing her words carefully.

"You don't sound entirely happy with that. Is there a catch?" Kanan questioned.

"Not a catch exactly, but we're urgently needed to deliver some supplies. The locals of Kieras Six just found out the Empire plans to destroy one of the main dams and reroute the river. They need help fast if they're going to have any hope of surviving the resulting flood. Of course none of that would be needed if the Empire was just willing to wait the six months to remove the dam slowly…" Hera sounded angry and Kanan didn't blame her one bit, but there was something a little more pressing.

"But they're not. So we do what we can, and there's no time to make a side trip to hand over the kid. We can keep him alive until then, he's managed this long, right?" Kanan watched as Ezra showed every sign of being fascinated by the crate, but his flexible pointed ears stayed firmly rotated in their direction.

"I'd have rather we dropped him off with someone who knows how to take care of a child. Both for our sakes and his. We're already uprooting him from everything he's known, the sooner he has some stability the better." Hera sighed, shaking her head slightly, long lekku swaying. "But not much help for it now, we need to get moving as soon as possible."

"Aye aye, captain." Kanan smiled slightly. Considering some of the people they dealt with on a far too frequent basis, a kid could hardly be any worse.

"So while I'm plotting our course, you can get him cleaned up." Hera waved vaguely in the direction of the showers.

"What?" Kanan asked, surprised.

"Get him cleaned up. If he's going to be sharing a ship with us he needs a shower and we can hope his clothes will survive a trip through the cleaner without falling apart. Right now he… well…" Hera shrugged slightly.

"Smells like he's been living on the streets for the past six months?" Kanan said bluntly, earning a wince and a slight nod.

"We can at least make sure he's clean and fed while he's with us." Hera said, starting back towards the cockpit to start liftoff procedures. "Just do what you can."

"I will." Kanan sighed, looking over Ezra. "I don't guess you know how to take a shower on your own?" He asked hopefully, getting a questioning sound in answer.

"Going to take that as a no." Kanan rubbed over his face with another sigh as he tried to think of what he could do.

* * *

The empty crates ended up giving him the idea. The showers weren't really large enough to cram in there with someone else, and even if he could coax Ezra inside he wasn't sure the kid would be able to wash himself without help. After a little work though he got one of the smaller crates cleaned out, and dragged it over to fill with warm water.

"Here." Kanan patted the side of the crate, Ezra had been watching him curiously the whole time, but keeping his distance. He slowly came closer at the patting, peering in and then reaching to splash at the warm water.

"You're going to get in there and get clean." Kanan crouched down to start tugging Ezra's ragged clothing off. The kid put up a halfhearted struggle when he tugged the oversized brown vest off of him, but it seemed to be more for show than any real objection. Once he had the filthy cloth off he scooped Ezra up around his waist, lifting him up and into the crate. That earned him a startled little yelp at the sudden movement, but once he was in the warm water he settled down and started splashing again, scooping it up and letting it drop back. Kanan smiled, then grabbed the soap and started scrubbing.

It took three soapings and dumping the crate twice before Kanan was fairly certain Ezra was something approaching clean. During that time there was one soap in the eyes incident that made him feel like a monster when Ezra cried, and then flinched every time he got near his face again. And he couldn't just avoid it, the fur turned into a crest of hair along the center of his scalp that had gotten matted and tangled. Kanan ended up eventually just cutting it down short when attempt to detangle it got unhappy little yelps and what he was fairly sure were pleas to stop tugging.

Kanan had actually thought he was through the second time and was draining the water, when he realized that as filthy as he'd been and as covered in fur as he was; that soap designed to kill any bloodsucking insects that might have taken up residence in his fur might be a smart idea. He refilled the crate, kept the scrawny looking bedraggled Lasat from making a dash for freedom, and scrubbed him again with the harsher insecticide soap, working it through his fur and letting it sit before giving him a final rinse.

Finally there was the long process of rubbing the thick fur dry. Finally though Kanan gave a final ruffle of the towel, surveying his handiwork. Ezra looked much better clean, his fur was mostly a bright royal blue with dark indigo to navy stripes on his limbs and marbled stripes on his back. It faded to a pale blue grey on his belly and on the underside of his arms and backs of his legs, with some darker blue spotting on his belly fur. His eyes were bright blue and looked to be all iris and pupil, no visible whites.

His eyelids were also drooping some, and with a start Kanan realized it was probably well into morning. Most younglings needed a fair amount of sleep and he had no idea when Ezra had last slept, but he'd been up all night and gone through a lot. It was no wonder it looked like he was about ready to curl up on the cargo hold floor and sleep.

"Come on, Ezra. There's two spare rooms, you can have whichever one looks like it has less junk stored in it." Kanan reached to take the small clawed hand. His hands were a little stubbier than he would expect from a human or near human, the ends tipped with non retractable claws instead of nails and there were only three fingers and a thumb. He stood digitigrade, on flexible toes and with a long stretch of foot between the toe pads and the 'heel' of his foot. He hadn't been wearing any sorts of shoes when they found him and Kanan wasn't entirely sure if that was normal or by choice. He didn't know where they'd even find shoes to fit, but then he reminded himself that Ezra had been barefoot for months most likely, it wouldn't do him any harm to be without shoes a little longer and then it would be someone else's problem.

Kanan checked the one he thought had the least stuff, frowning when it was more cluttered than he thought. There were pieces for upgrading the nose gun in there, not something he wanted a kid unsupervised around. He checked the other only to confirm it was nearly full.

"Ok, not going to treat you like cargo. Think you can behave if I let you have one of the bunks in my room?" Kanan asked, starting to open the door. Ezra looked up at him curiously, then at the room. Kanan led him inside.

"You can have the bottom bunk, if you fall out it's not as far." Kanan gestured to the bottom one, and even if Ezra didn't understand all the words he obviously recognized a bed, letting go of his hand to go and climb up onto it. Kanan grabbed the blanket, shaking it out and draping it over the kid, watching as he immediately started tucking it and rolling up in it until it was a tangled wad of blanket with him in the center.

"Guess that's why you had the whole pile to sleep in." Kanan patted the lump reassuringly, getting a soft sound at the pat. "I'll make sure whoever wants to be your new family knows, and you'll have plenty of blankets then."

* * *

Kanan wasn't sure exactly what woke him. He sat bolt upright in the top bunk, blinking into the darkness. Then there was a small sound and he became aware he wasn't alone in the room, laying back down with a sigh. Had he gotten used to his room so quickly that just another person's presence was enough to throw him off? Then he realized the small sounds of movement weren't coming from the bunk directly under him, but a little off in the room. He sat back up, turning the lights up and looking down. Large startled blue eyes met his own as Ezra stared up at him.

"You're awake already?" Kanan mumbled, it felt like he'd barely gotten to sleep, and then he looked down at what Ezra was holding. "Oh no. No no no."

Kanan swung off and down from the top bunk so he could grab the just connected parts of his lightsaber out of the kid's hand, ignoring the startled sound he made. "This is not a toy. Don't. Touch." He disconnected the two parts, glad he'd woken up before Ezra potentially figured out how to turn it on. He'd been more tired than he thought, he'd remembered to put his blaster away where Ezra couldn't get to it, but he'd not even thought about his lightsaber stored away in its two parts under his bunk. If Ezra had turned it on he could have gotten seriously hurt, there was little chance he'd have any idea what it was and how dangerous it could be. He'd need to find someplace safer for it while there was a kid on board.

He heard a soft choked back sound and looked away from the two parts and instantly felt guilt wash over him. Ezra looked absolutely stricken, curled in on himself and tears welling up in his eyes.

"Hey, no, it's ok." Kanan slowly kneeled down so he wasn't towering over the kid at least. "I'm sorry, you worried me. I didn't mean to frighten you." He spoke gently, mentally kicking himself. He hadn't been doing half bad with the kid so far, at least he thought he wasn't doing too badly. And then he went and terrified him by yelling at him. He didn't know exactly what Ezra had gone though over the past few months, but he had better guesses than some might. He could see Ezra shifting back and forth on his feet, sniffing, and after a long moment he reached out, coaxing the kid into a hug.

"I'm not angry with you. Even if you wake me up after a couple hours sleep. And then freak out when I don't let you chop your head off with my lightsaber." Kanan rubbed over his too thin feeling back as Ezra slowly calmed down. "Come on, if you're not going to go back to bed lets go get something to eat. Your clothes should be clean by now too." With any luck he could distract him and Ezra would forget all about being yelled at.


	3. Chapter 3

"Sure I'll watch the kid. You go take care of talking with people, I'll be fine. It can't be that hard." Kanan muttered to himself, sighing as he grabbed another bag to start shoveling full of dirt. Emergency efforts were being hampered by the fact a lot of the population refused to believe there was an emergency. The Empire hadn't said anything about removing the dam; they wouldn't just do it unannounced, would they?

They could and they would, but there wasn't time to coddle people's doubts. By the time the dam went down it would be too late to prepare for the flooding. The only way to prevent damage and potentially loss of life was to get the sandbags up before the water arrived. That meant Kanan was trying to shovel dirt into the bag and keep an eye on Ezra at the same time. It was harder than he expected. The kid kept a large personal space bubble around himself and didn't want strangers getting too close, but beyond that he was eager to explore the town.

With a start Kanan realized he'd lost sight of him yet again and stood with a soft groan, stretching his back. Eventually when enough people got involved then mob mentality would kick in and people would help no matter if they truly believed in the danger or not, just because everyone else was doing it. Until then though he needed to do what he could and set a good example. When he wasn't chasing after Ezra to make sure he stayed out of trouble.

"Oh. Oh no. " Kanan finally spotted a glimpse of blue fur and came around a corner to see that Ezra had scaled a trash can and was clinging with his feet as he worked on prying the lid off.

He started to raise his voice and stopped, remembering how upset Ezra had gotten when he yelled at him for playing with his lightsaber. He didn't want him eating out of the garbage, but he didn't want him thinking it was a bad thing. Just more that… if there were better options available he wanted him to try those first, and Kanan would do his best to make sure there were always better options.

"Hey." Kanan kept his voice nice as he approached Ezra, reaching out to rub over the back of his vest. "Getting hungry? It's been a while since breakfast. Come on, lets get something better than you'll find in there." He started to lift Ezra up and off the trash can, and Ezra twisted to wrap his arms around him, clinging and hanging off him. He tried to bend to see if Ezra would go down to the ground, and he just tightened his grip some.

"You want to be carried? Alright. I can manage that." Kanan straightened back up, even if he was already starting to get tired from filling sandbags he could manage Ezra's slight weight. "Maybe I won't have to explain to Hera that I took my eyes off you for a second and you almost got into someone's trash."

It didn't take too long to find food for them both, finding a spot to sit down so he could eat and keep an eye on Ezra. The kid's table manners weren't exactly the best, but then again Kanan had seen worse and as long as he wasn't making a mess that he had to clean up he wasn't worried.

After the food was gone he managed to get Ezra interested at least for a little while in shoving dirt into the bags. It maybe wasn't as fast as he could have done alone, but it was something. And by this time more people had joined in, starting a line of bags being filled and hauled into place. It looked like whatever Hera was doing to help the people in charge organize volunteers was working.

"Your kid's being a big help, it looks like." A male voice came from nearby as Kanan decided Ezra seemed to be losing interest in digging in the dirt. He was hoping he could get the kid to hold the bag open instead. Kanan glanced over at a grey haired human man working on filling his own sandbag.

"You could call it that. He's not really mine though." Kanan paused, noticing the look he was getting. "I mean, he's an orphan and his parents were friends of mine so I'm looking after him." It was close enough to the truth to be a good story to give.

"Good luck with that then." The guy gave him an encouraging smile and went back to filling his own bag.

"You ever have any kids of your own?" Kanan took the bag from Ezra so he could seal the end and haul it to the stack of finished sand bags. Ezra didn't look like he was planning to run off again anytime soon, between the food and barely getting any sleep the night before he looked like he was starting to get sleepy again.

"No, afraid not. The wife and I always kind of hoped, but… well." The guy shrugged.

Kanan nodded, while he was starting to turn things over in his head. The planet was nice, more varied plant life than Lothal, but the climate wasn't too different if he was remembering right. The Empire had a presence, the dam being torn down was proof of it, but it wasn't nearly as heavy as it was on Lothal.

"Have you ever thought about adopting?"

* * *

Kanan felt very proud of himself. He'd spent a couple hours talking to the guy, Xanis, over the sandbag work, while Ezra snoozed nearby in the dead to the world way that children and some animals all seemed to be adept at. He'd gotten his name, most of his life story, the general gossip about the town that all inhabitants seemed to know no matter where you went. He seemed perfect. He'd even heard of Lasat, though he'd never actually gotten to meet one before.

With Ezra still sleeping it was an easy enough matter to pick him up and carry him to his new home. No having to try and arrange a meeting with Fulcrum, no Ezra having to spend days, maybe weeks travelling to find a new home. Hera was going to be pleased.

"You did _what_?"

Maybe pleased was being a little too optimistic, but Kanan hadn't been prepared for the full force of her displeasure.

"I found the kid a home. I thought you'd be glad about this, it saves us a great deal of trouble." Kanan crossed his arms, not backing down.

"First, you seem to have forgotten who's in charge. I decide what's trouble for us or not. You don't go over my head on that." Hera leaned in closer and Kanan did flinch at that.

"Right, sorry. I should have run it past you. It won't happen again." Kanan said apologetically.

"Second, do you even have any idea who you handed Ezra over to? They could be Imperial sympathizers, or just plain horrible people. I wasn't planning to give him away to just anyone." Hera said, still sounding just as angry as before.

"They seemed nice. I talked with them all afternoon. I didn't just shove him on the first person who came along you know." Kanan frowned, it was true he hadn't thought to verify…. Well, anything. He hadn't thought of an Imperial sympathizer working on the sandbag wall, but then again anyone who had closer ties to the Empire might know about the dam coming down from other sources and want to save their home.

"And he went with them just like that?" Hera asked.

"Well… He was sleeping. It seemed easier. It's not like we could tell him what was going on, and this way it's quick." Kanan was starting to feel guilty about that though.

"That… Well, I'm not sure which would be easier, but I wanted to at least try to get him to understand what was going on. They we weren't just leaving and never coming back. He's going to wake up alone, on a strange planet, with a near stranger. Where did you leave him?" Hera started towards the ramp.

"I'll show you. We can… ok, not fix this, but we'll make it better. And who knows? Maybe it will work out and this will have been a great idea after all?" Kanan started to follow her, when they were both stopped by Chopper's frantic beeps.

Hera paled, crouching down to touch the top of Chopper's dome. "Relay that again?"

Kanan tried to make out the fast beeps, he could understand Chopper most of the time, but not as easily as Hera did. Thankfully after a few more short bursts the droid projected a scrolling recording of a holonet message.

"What is that?" Kanan leaned down to try and read the blurry holo.

"It's… it's a request to the Imperial base asking for an updated list on non-human bounty prices." Hera's lips thinned. "I've been having Chopper monitor communications between the town and the Imperial base. Still think that might be a good idea?"

"It might be a coincidence, but… you're right. It looks bad, and even if it wasn't them specifically it means there's someone here who would turn him over." Kanan straightened up. "Let's go."

Hera nodded "Chopper, stay here, keep monitoring communications." She stood back up ready to follow him.

Kanan led her through the dark streets, glad he remembered the way. If he'd forgotten where he left Ezra he wasn't sure she would have forgiven him. He stepped up to the door, not even pausing before he was knocking, hard.

It took a minute and Kanan was starting to worry that Xanis had fled, but he could hear someone moving around inside and after a minute the door opened.

"Are you trying to collect a bounty on a child?" Hera didn't waste any time, and the surprised guilty look gave them all they needed to know. Kanan pushed the door the rest of the way open, shouldering Xanis aside.

"Where is he?" Kanan demanded, looking around.

"He's here, I'm not… look. I lost my job, I know the Empire pays well… and…" The man stammered

"So you became a slaver?" Hera didn't take her eyes off him.

Kanan found a door locked from the outside, unlocking it. He'd worried on the way over that Ezra might be angry, or not trust him after he abandoned him. He didn't have to worry long.

"Ezra?" Kanan got the door opened all the way, looking for the Lasat child when he was nearly bowled over. Ezra ran full tilt into his legs, clinging and babbling something.

"Hey, it's ok, we're here now." Kanan reached down to pet over his short cut little crest of hair, letting Ezra cling and then seeing if he could tug him up. Ezra went willingly up, clinging to him and he carried him back out.

"I've got him." Kanan said, unnecessarily when Hera spotted them.

"Is he hurt?" Hera asked.

"I didn't hurt him." Xanis protested.

"You were just going to give him over to others who would? He seems ok, scared but not hurt." Kanan carried him outside.

"You can't understand, you'd do the same if it was the choice between your own life and some kid." Xanis protested one more time.

"No, I can pretty much guarantee I wouldn't." Kanan could see Hera resisting the urge to slam the door as she followed him out.

"Give him here? I can carry him." Hera said, it was barely a question, and Kanan eased Ezra off clinging to him so he could pass him over. Ezra didn't waste any time hugging onto her, tucking his face against the side of her neck.

"At least that's over and it worked out ok." Kanan offered, after a couple minutes of silence walking back to the Ghost.

"We got lucky, it could have gone much worse." Hera said soberly. "If he was smarter he might have realized we don't have any real proof that Ezra's with us other than he likes us. If he thought you were going to change your mind so quickly he might have hidden him. Instead he just saw an opportunity to make a quick buck and took it, without thinking it through."

Kanan didn't even know how to reply to that so he stayed quiet, even after they'd gotten back to the ship.


	4. Chapter 4

"Part of what keeps the refugee camps safe is the lack of contact. If it was an emergency we could see about getting him into hiding sooner, but it's still five months until the next scheduled supply run. If we were to send a ship at random times it could attract attention. If having him on board is a problem then we can arrange a pickup and someone can watch him temporarily until the next supply run where he can be placed with a family in one of the camps. But we can't jeopardize their safety for one child." Fulcrum's electronically scrambled voice came though the transmission, accompanied by the projection of the cloaked figure.

"I understand." Hera had hoped for better news, but Fulcrum was right. It may not be as safe on the Ghost as other places, but it wasn't so dangerous as to risk all the lives of the families in hiding. "I'll let you know which we decide tomorrow, same time."

"Understood." Fulcrum ended the transmission and Hera sighed, sitting down on her bunk. The last mission had ended fairly well. The sandbags and flood proofing efforts held until the waters started to recede, and there hadn't been any more disastrous attempts on Kanan's part to help.

She had mostly forgiven him. He'd been shocked when the man had turned out to be lying about wanting a child for altruistic reasons and he hadn't been stubborn about trying to defend his actions. He'd worked to correct the problem and he'd admitted he was wrong, which was something she could work with. She could handle some challenge to her command, any good leader should be open minded, but outright defiance especially just for the sake of defiance she wasn't about to tolerate.

Hera stood up, stretching, and went out to find Kanan to tell him the news. She found both of them in the cargo hold. Any time they landed on planet they seemed to take half of it back with them in dirt and dust and worse tracked up and into her ship, and they were both scrubbing the floor.

Or more accurately Kanan was scrubbing with the brush mop, Ezra would scrub at a spot with the hand brush, and then push the brush across the floor and go chasing after it, slipping and sliding harmlessly on the wet floor.

She watched them a moment, then cleared her throat to get Kanan to look up.

"So how soon can we get the kid off to his new parents?" Kanan asked, straightening up and letting the mop dangle.

"More bad news. The next scheduled visit for the refugee colony is five months from now." Hera glanced to where Ezra was still playing with the brush.

"So we need to keep him out of trouble for that much longer?" Kanan rubbed over his hair, brushing back a few strands that had escaped.

"There is one more option. Fulcrum would be willing to find someone else to take him temporarily, if we can't keep him here." Hera said.

Kanan frowned at that. "So he spends a couple weeks with us, then another few months with someone else, and then hopefully he gets to have a family?"

"Neither one is a really good option. " Hera crouched down when Ezra trotted over, showing off the brush. She gently ruffled the fur on his head and he beamed at her. He could probably tell by their tone that something was up. "I don't have a lot of experience with children."

"Same. " Kanan sighed.

"He doesn't seem like too much trouble though." Hera pointed out.

"He wasn't here twelve hours before he found one of my weapons. Nearly gave me a heart attack. If he is going to stay we're either going to have to have half the ship on lockdown or teach him some self-preservation." Kanan waved a hand at Ezra.

"You left your blaster where he could reach it?" Hera was a little surprised, Kanan was normally careful about keeping it safe.

"Not my blaster."Kanan said, and Hera sobered, nodding.

"Maybe we can try for a short time. If he's getting in the way we'll let Fulcrum decide where he goes." Hera glanced down at Ezra "I should introduce him to Chopper."

"I'll keep scrubbing here. If he's going to stay he's going to need some supplies though, like a change of clothes. And maybe a toy that isn't a scrub brush." Kanan pointed out.

"We'll figure something out." Hera looked down at Ezra, offering her hand. "Come on." He grabbed it eagerly enough and she stood, to start leading him to the cockpit.

Ezra had never been inside the cockpit and he eyed everything with obvious curiosity, pulling away from her to start climbing up into the copilot's chair that Kanan usually used. He was almost up when Chopper pulled away from where he was doing a system's scan, beeping in curiosity.

Hera knew that Chopper knew all about Ezra's presence on the ship, but she'd ordered him to stay away from the kid before now. It wasn't that she thought he'd hurt Ezra, exactly, but the older astromech could be somewhat temperamental. He was quite capable of delivering a nasty jolt to anyone he cared to, and it was painful for an adult. She wasn't sure how dangerous it would be to a small child, and she hadn't wanted to tempt fate by leaving them alone and unsupervised to find out.

"Chopper, this is Ezra. He's smaller than you, and he's more breakable. Be nice. Ezra, this is Chopper, try to be nice back." Hera held her breath, waiting for the potential explosion.

Ezra stared unblinking at Chopper for about all of three seconds, and then sat down in the chair, feet dangling over the edge, as he reached for the closest button.

"No, no that's not a toy. Look, don't touch. Understand?" Hera reached to grab his hand and tug it back from the panel. Ezra gave her an offended look, replying in his own language.

"No, don't touch. " Hera reached down to pick him up, sitting down in her chair and holding him in her lap so she could better prevent any sudden grabs for the controls. It was unlikely he could manage anything too bad before she could stop him, but she'd still prefer he kept his tiny hands off her control panel.

"This is where I do all the flying." Hera spoke to fill the silence after several long minutes. Chopper snickered at her and she ignored him. "To steer the ship I grip here…" It was awkward at first, speaking and knowing she likely could have been reciting Besalisk poetry for all that Ezra knew, but he relaxed back against her showing every evidence of listening. Talking about her ship was something that came easily to her, and so she did. She had just finished explaining how the nav computer had been upgraded to better account for gravity wells in its calculations when a very soft little mew sound interrupted her. She paused, glancing down.

Sometime during the explanation Ezra had leaned back against her, his eyes closed and his mouth slightly open. He might have been faking, but with how limp he was Hera suspected he truly was fast asleep.

"Just like that? I guess this could count as a bedtime story. Even if it is only mid afternoon" Hera rubbed over the top of Ezra's head with a gloved hand, getting another quiet sound at the contact and a sigh, but no sign of waking up.

Hera got him up, head resting on her shoulder so she could stand and head back. Ezra was still sleeping in Kanan's room and that seemed the best place to put him. She met Kanan on the way, from the looks of things he'd finished mopping but hadn't gotten a chance to clean up yet.

"Kid pass out again?" Kanan asked, looking at the limp Lasat kit draped over her shoulder.

"He's asleep." Hera confirmed, then arched a tattooed eyebrow "Again?

"He did the same thing yesterday. And before that, come to think of it. Lets me sleep for a few hours at night and then he's up and awake. Then he passes out again and sleeps the afternoon away. I knew most younglings napped, but…" Kanan grumbled, and looking closer Hera could see he did look tired.

"Should we wake him up? Try to keep him awake so he sleeps through the night?" Hera wasn't sure how easy that would be, even being carried and with both of them right there and talking Ezra was limp and deeply asleep.

"I don't know. Maybe he's supposed to be nocturnal and he's napping at night? Or maybe his sleep schedule's messed up from being on his own." Kanan started to rub over his face and then looked at his mop water damp hands and grimaced.

"How about after you get cleaned up you just sleep while he sleeps?" Hera suggested.

"I was hoping to check the fuel line on the Phantom, she was responding a little sluggishly before." Kanan didn't protest too hard though.

"Chopper and I can check it, get some sleep. " Hera carried Ezra into Kanan's room, easing him off her shoulder and onto the bunk where he promptly curled up into a ball. If Ezra did plan on only sleeping a few hours a night they'd have to figure something out, trade off who woke up with him. A few nights of lost sleep were one thing, every night was another entirely.

They'd figure it out somehow. Hera had made up her mind, unless Ezra entirely prevented them from doing their jobs he was staying. She wasn't going to see him passed around to whoever was able to watch him for months until a family could be found. Chopper didn't seem to hate him, he didn't seem to hate Chopper, they could manage one kittle kid. Wasn't this what they were fighting for, in the end? To protect people hurt by the Empire who weren't able to fight for themselves yet?

Hera didn't try to lie to herself that it wouldn't be different if she didn't feel slightly responsible. Mira and Ephraim had chosen to speak out, to stand up for what they believed in. She had warned them, but she'd halfway wanted to believe they'd manage it.

When she had been a child a memory stood out. She wasn't sure how old she was, or when. They were in a camp, and one of the older women was building a fire. She'd watched with the rapt fascination as the woman gathered up dry grass, then handfuls of twigs, then larger twigs. It seemed forever before she added one of the split logs, positioning it carefully. After a time the woman had realized Hera was watching and smiled at her, gentle, and Hera had come closer.

 _Little_ _one, are you trying to learn how to build a fire?_

Hera had carefully nodded.

 _Then_ _let me tell you. My mother taught me that fire is change, and you must think of the fuel like they're people._

Hera had been skeptical, how was a pile of twigs and sticks like people. The woman had been amused at her skepticism.

 _Because you have the little twigs, they're people like you and me. Then you have the sticks, they're the ones with a little more power, the soldiers. Then bigger sticks, and bigger, until you have the logs themselves, the powerful people. If everyone works together, you light the twigs and they catch the sticks and then the logs and you have a fire. If you try to take a handful of twigs and light them they will catch, and then they will flare out and you'll be left with ashes. If you try to just like the log without the sticks and twigs it will never light. It takes them all working together. Come see._

She had taken the mechanical firestarter then, bending close and telling Hera not to breathe as the spark struck, then landed on the twigs and grass. Hera didn't breathe, watching as the woman cupped her hands to block the wind and shelter the spark. It lingered, almost dimmed, and then spread along the dry tinder, growing brighter and smoking until real flames could be seen. The twigs burned, the sticks caught, and the logs smoked and then burned.

More people had come then, to the light and warmth and with what food they had that would taste better warmed over the fire. Hera didn't remember much more, she assumed it played out like so many other days in her life with nothing to imprint it on her memory, but the fire she remembered. She remembered other times when she was the one to build the fire, to light the ember against the dark.

She liked the metaphor, even if it had been just a child's teaching story about working together. There were logs, big people, who would help them if they only had the support and she would do her part to find the kindling. But the Bridgers… the Bridgers had been so sure they were ready, that the people were ready. And they'd been wrong.

She'd do what she could to keep their son from suffering the same fate.

Hera was still watching Ezra sleep, lost in thought, when Kanan opened the door. Clean clothes this time, and his hair damp and dark pulled back in that stubby little ponytail he wore.

"Everything alright?" Kanan asked.

Hera nodded after a moment "Just thinking, wondering what might have happened if… with his parents." She gestured to him.

"He'd be waking them up at all hours of the night instead of me?" Kanan's tone was deliberately light, and Hera gave a wry smile. It was important to remember the past, but getting caught up in what-ifs could be dangerous.

"Take your nap, I have a fuel line to check over." Hera said, starting for the door.

Kanan grunted, eyeing the top bunk a moment and then sat down on the bottom one, starting to stretch out beside Ezra.

The Lasat wiggled his toes, ear flicking, and then rolled over to grab Kanan's shirt in both hands and cling close. Kanan froze, looking down at him like he was afraid to move.

And then Ezra yawned, bit down on a fold of Kanan's shirt, and started drooling.

Hera stifled a laugh at Kanan's indignant look as she backed out of the room to let them sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Kanan finished tugging the makeshift poncho over Ezra's head, adjusting it and then studying his handiwork. They hadn't managed to get any extra clothing for him, and where they were going was a good bit colder than Lothal. He could feel the small bump as the Ghost landed and he reached to ruffle Ezra's short cropped hair. "We're here. Ready to see a whole ton of snow?"

Ezra grinned up at him and Kanan gave him an answering smile "I'm going to take that as a yes."

"Are you ready?" Hera entered the hold, already dressed warmly with her lekku tucked into a long shaped hat. "What's Ezra wearing?"

"It's a coat." Kanan straightened up, grabbing his own parka to slide it on and zip it up.

"It's part of a blanket. With a hole cut in the middle?" Hera crouched down to inspect it. "Is that glue holding the sides together?"

"It makes it sleeves, so it's not just flapping. Do you know anything about making clothing?" Kanan felt oddly defensive of the little cut up blanket.

"Point." Hera admitted "And it's warmer than just what he was wearing. This way he might not have to share a jacket with one of us."

"I'd prefer he walked as much as possible. It's how far a walk to the shuttle?" Kanan knew why they had landed where they did, the city of Ira boasted a large busy spaceport with people coming and going. The neighboring city of Brek was much smaller. Even falsifying their records it would be riskier that someone might take notice of them if they landed at Brek, but they'd just be one of dozens landing and taking off again from Ira.

"A fair way." Hera admitted. "Maybe we should leave him here? Chopper could keep an eye on him."

"Not a chance. We'd come back to one of them in pieces, and I'd give about even odds on which one it would be. " Kanan had already come between a few almost-fights. Ezra seemed to think it was great fun to sneak up somewhere high and then dive bomb the droid, they'd both scream and Kanan couldn't even begin to guess if it was in joy or fear or some kind of strange war cry from either of them, and then Ezra would tear off through the ship at top speed with Chopper beeping obscenities and trying to run him down. They barreled through all obstacles in their path, including Kanan. It made Kanan heartily wish that Hera hadn't put a six month ban on all alcoholic beverages in the Ghost after 'The Bucket Incident'. Of course given his luck, Ezra would find a way to get into that too. The kid was as curious as a whole room full of tookas with about half the self-preservation instinct.

"Let's get going then." Hera raised the ramp, reaching down to grab Ezra's hand before he could run ahead to investigate. The cold air rushed in, making her glad she'd bundled up. It was winter and the temperatures could dip dangerously low for many species if they were unprepared, but it wasn't cold enough to break equipment and their gear should be more than sufficient. Ezra was dressed lighter, even with the blanket coat, but his fur was thick enough to provide a fairly good layer of insulation.

The city itself, once they left the spaceport, was busy. The weather was overcast but bright, and a barely there scattering of snow fell from the clouds. It wasn't enough to provide any additional noticeable accumulation to areas left snow covered, but it left a light dusting on scraped clean surfaces and fascinated Ezra. He kept reaching out with his free hand to grab for them, when he wasn't distracted by gawking at all the strange people and buildings. It was enough to make Kanan feel a little guilty, his innocent enthusiasm was entirely out of place when heading to meet a mob boss.

At least as criminal masterminds went, this one was supposed to be among the more respectable. He had a legitimate business, he paid his taxes to the Empire, and if a good portion of the funds that funneled through said business came from departments that may or may not exist as anything more than an official looking cover for less legal activities it seemed like currently the Empire wasn't interested in looking too hard.

The risks involved with dealing with people like that, from what Hera had told him, was that they were a lot more likely to ask questions about who they were employing and looking into their history. They wanted to protect their business and weren't going to just hand over jobs without meeting them in person. The credits were supposed to be worth the hassle.

The walk went uneventfully enough, at least until they finally arrived at the shuttle station to the next city. It was out far enough that there were still snow drifts around it that were fairly untouched.

"Why don't we let him off the leash for a little while? He looks like he might like playing in the snow." Kanan suggested, waving at the snowdrifts all around them. He sincerely doubted there would be anything too dangerous lurking under the snow right by the shuttle station. It was too clean and well lit.

"Good idea." Hera sat down on the bench, letting go of Ezra's hand and lightly patting his back. "Go see what you think of playing in the snow."

Ezra stood, looking a little confused for a minute until Kanan stepped off into one of the drifts, reaching down to scoop up some of the snow and toss it his way, then he squealed and waded right into the snow.

"That's the idea." Kanan smiled some at his enthusiasm. "You like the snow?"

"Snow?" Ezra repeated, curiously.

"Snow." Kanan held up a handful of it, showing it off. He hadn't spent a great deal of time trying to teach Ezra Basic, and he felt a little guilty, but he wasn't sure where to start. Did kids just pick things up?

"Snow!" Ezra grabbed a handful, tossing it into the air.

"That's right." Kanan kept an eye on him, heading to the bench to sit down and let him play. Did he have that much energy at that age? He didn't remember.

Ezra flailed in the snow for several minutes, finally perking his ears up and hopping out of the drift to pad over to both of them.

"What is it?" Hera reached down to brush some of the snow off his blanket.

"The shuttle's coming." Kanan stood, motioning to the road. "I think he heard it before we could."

The shuttle ride itself went uneventfully, Ezra plastered himself to the window and watched the landscape passing by with excitement. Kanan took the opportunity to tug off the heavy gloves and enjoy the heated interior. At one point he grabbed at Kanan's hand, babbling excitedly but quietly and pointing out large shaggy herdbeasts out in one of the snowy fields. Kanan had certainly travelled with worse company.

Bara wasn't as well cleared as the city of Ira and the snow had gotten heavier, Kanan's boots crunched down into the fresh powder and he reached to offer Hera a hand down. She handed over Ezra instead and he took the Lasat, turning to put him down into the snow. He spread his toes, light enough to barely sink down below the surface.

"Lets go." Kanan took Ezra's hand, starting into the city. They'd barely started before Ezra started whining, trying to pull his hand away. "No, Ezra. You need to stay close. You're not running out into traffic or something."

Ezra whined louder and then went dead weight, dangling from his arm.

"Hera, a little help here? He was behaving with you." Kanan stopped rather than drag an unwilling Ezra through the snow.

Hera crouched to lift Ezra up, frowning. "Kanan, he's shivering."

Kanan reached out, tugging a glove off to press his hand to Ezra's chest, feeling him tremble. "He was fine before, maybe it's just coming out of the warm shuttle into the cold air?" He frowned, then felt the blanket. "No, he's damp now. The snow must have melted from before. Nothing he's wearing is really waterproof."

"Looks like he's going to be sharing a coat with one of us then." Hera glanced at him.

"I've got it." Kanan unzipped his parka, reaching out for Ezra. Hera handed him over without arguing. It took Ezra just a moment to realize what was going on, then he was clinging tight to the front of Kanan's shirt, making it easy to zip his jacket. "You're going to be holding him while I meet with our employer though."

"I planned on it." Hera quirked a smile. It was easier to let people assume Kanan was in charge, being a tall human male worked in his favor there. And it would throw off anyone who tried to play them against each other, or turn her against her 'employer'. Kanan had been briefed on how to deal with the crime boss and what deals they were willing to take, and what to watch out for.

Kanan intended to play the jaded empty headed scoundrel role he'd taken before, and it wouldn't go over as well with a kid stuffed inside his jacket. He tried not to wince as Ezra adjusted to his new warm little nook and squirmed around, one icy cold foot managing to scrunch up his shirt and touch sensitive warm skin on his belly before Ezra got himself turned around. He tucked his head under Kanan's chin, peering out of the top of his jacket curiously.

* * *

It had been awkward at first making the walk with a kid shoved down the front of his jacket, but if anyone else noticed they didn't care enough to stare. Ezra stopped shivering after a minute or two and by the time they arrived in front of their destination he was putting off enough body heat to keep the inside of his jacket toasty. He was almost reluctant to unzip his jacket and hand him over to Hera.

"Let's get this over with." Kanan waited until Hera had moved to a nearby café to take a seat. There was an outside seating area with heat lamps, but everyone else seemed to prefer a seat inside out of the snow. It made it perfect for her to sit down with Ezra without a crowd around. Kanan turned his com on and in broadcasting mode only, dropping it into his pocket before heading inside.

Inside it was nice, a lot nicer than most of the places Kanan had been in over the years. He always felt slightly uncomfortable, which was probably the point. It made him want to leave, or maybe tip over something expensive that looked decorative. Instead he let the secretary know he was there and took a seat on one of the very stylish and just slightly uncomfortable chairs.

It wasn't too long before Kanan was being called in, which was a good thing. He was starting to think that no matter how well this was supposed to pay that it might be easier to just make some quick deals with some lowlifes and get credits without all the fuss.

Kanan was led to a meeting room, sleek and polished as the rest of the place. He tried to look unconcerned as he took his seat, scanning over the people in the room. Most were as clean and polished as the rest of this place and he wasn't too surprised. It was supposed to be a real business after all.

"So, Mr. Jarrus, you have a ship for hire on a freelance basis?" The man at the head of the table spoke.

"That's right." Kanan nodded, remembering his briefing. Keep his answers short, be respectful, don't ask too many questions.

"Where's the rest of your crew?" One of the others spoke up, and Kanan blinked.

"I didn't think you needed to meet with them." Kanan wasn't expecting that. Hera had arranged this weeks ago.

"When you landed you registered three crewmembers, the original arrangement was for you and your pilot. We'd like to meet all of you."

"I'll call them and tell them to come in, but I really don't think it will be a problem." Kanan hadn't even considered that. Of course Ezra would count as an additional crew member on the ship's docking information. The only upside was that Hera obviously hadn't thought about it either, and hopefully it would be a quick fix.

"I'll be the judge of that." The person in charge spoke up again and Kanan bit back a sarcastic reply as he got out the comlink.

Kanan pretended to switch it on, no sense in letting them know Hera had heard everything and was likely making preparations to join them.

Then it was a tense wait. Kanan hated it, especially as half the people in the room seemed content to ignore him for the moment and start side conversations too quiet to overhear. He just kept his mouth shut, stayed sitting, and tried to look like he didn't care without seeming rude about it. They could have let him know back in the waiting room that he'd need the others with him, instead of dragging him in like this.

There was a brief few minutes of worry that they might have decided to make Hera wait outside out of useless formality, and then the door was opening for her. She didn't look concerned, though how much of that was an act Kanan wasn't sure, and she was carrying Ezra outside of her jacket but still bundled up in the blanket poncho.

"Here's my third crewmember." Kanan stood up so he could motion to Ezra.

"A child?" One of the people, a Felucian, spoke.

"My child." Hera said firmly, not making any move to put Ezra down which was probably smart.

"So you see why he wasn't included in the hiring information. It's not fair to count him as a worker when he's just a child." Kanan said, and of course weeks ago when they were making plans neither of them knew they'd be finding him. But better to pretend he wasn't such a recent addition.

"He doesn't look much like you, either of you." One of the humans got up, coming closer and peering at Ezra. "What is he, anyway?" She reached a hand to poke at him before Hera could turn away and try to step out of range.

A small blue furred hand swatted at the reaching one. "Crink off!"

The woman shot Kanan an offended look and he held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "I, ah, have no idea where he learned those words. I apologize." And he was going to have to be more careful about what sort of language he used when struggling with ship upkeep.

There was an awkward silence and it looked like the woman was about to say something, when laughter rang out from the other side of the room. It was coming from the man at the head of the table, and Kanan relaxed marginally.

"I think we can all agree that this is hardly cause for concern." He spoke, chuckling and waving a hand. "You can pick up your job information at the front desk and if you do a satisfactory job for us we'll continue to contract with you." He waved a hand to dismiss them.

Kanan didn't want to hang around and risk him changing his mind, heading towards the door. It could have gone much worse.

* * *

They picked up the disk with the job information on it and stepped back out into the snow.

"You taught him to curse?" Hera just sounded amused, setting Ezra down but holding into one hand when he squirmed in her arms.

"I didn't teach him, exactly. He must have overhead me. He's smart." Kanan was glad it had worked out in their favor. If they'd been offended by the rude behavior…

"Lets hope he picks up more useful words soon." Hera chuckled softly.

"I get the feeling he will. He already learned snow, right?" Kanan reached down to scoop up a snowball getting Ezra's attention "Ezra, what is this?"

"Ezra poked it with one finger. "Snow!"

"See? He's smart." Kanan smiled. They had a job, one good enough to pay for food and fuel for a little while, and they could figure out the rest as they went along.

* * *

Author Note - Because some people have been asking, yes, Zeb's going to make an appearance. Probably two more chapters before then, but he will be showing up. Just be patient.


	6. Chapter 6

Hera found as the days passed that it was easier just to treat Ezra like Chopper, only slightly less likely to do what he was told.

"Chopper, run a systems diagnostic."

Angry beeping.

"Ezra, stop touching that. It's disgusting. Go wash up."

Angry meeping.

At least Ezra seemed to be adjusting and figuring out all the things that would be actually dangerous to touch and what things were fine to play with. They did keep a few things locked down because he could do a lot of damage to himself or the ship if he got hold of them, but for the most part it was safe to give him the run of the ship. For the most part.

"Kanan, have you seen Ezra?" Hera peered in his open door, she'd already checked all the locations the cameras could see and no sign of the Lasat child. Now she was checking places that weren't on view of the cameras.

"Not for a while, I think he was playing with Chopper. Something wrong?" Kanan put down the armor piece he was cleaning.

"No, nothing's wrong that I know of. I just haven't seen him in a while. Chopper's been up in the cockpit with me." Hera wasn't concerned exactly, Ezra spent plenty of time playing on his own. They'd picked him up a few things to play with, even if he was fairly inventive at finding his own games it lessened the chances he was going to run off with something important. Most of his toys were in his room, but the brown striped tooka doll was missing, as well as Ezra himself.

"Well we're in space so he has to be somewhere in the ship." Kanan pointed out, and then paused. "Right?"

"Right." Hera tried not to think of the possibilities. "I'm going to check something." She turned to head back to the cockpit.

"What now?" Kanan got up to follow her.

"Probably nothing. Chopper, access the computer and look back, have any of the escape pods been used or any hatches opened? Anything at all?" Hera spoke to the droid once she reached the cockpit, to glance over the screens.

Chopper plugged in, then beeped a negative, asking why.

Hera tried not to obviously breathe a sigh of relief.

"So now we know for sure he's in the ship, but where?" Kanan studied the screens, looking for something Hera might have missed.

Chopper announced that he'd seen him, and pulled back, starting out of the cockpit.

"Well why didn't you say something earlier?" Hera grumbled to herself, following him down and to Ezra's room. "I already looked here."

Chopper made a rude sound, rolling over to the wall and popping out an arm to wave up at the vent cover, rolling back when Kanan stepped forward to examine it. He pulled, and it swung away from the wall easily.

"That's not supposed to do that. How did he even get up there?" Hera crossed her arms as Chopper beeped angrily. "I know he can climb, I didn't think he could go straight up the wall."

Kanan sighed "The real question is, can he get himself back out or is one of us going to have to go in after him?" He leaned in towards the vent, cupping a hand to his mouth "Ezra?" He pitched his voice to carry, with no hint of anger in his tone.

Hera approved, even if they didn't want Ezra in the vents if he thought they were angry he might delay, or try to hide. "I really hate climbing through the vents."

"Maybe if he thinks it's fun you won't have to for a while?" Kanan smiled slightly.

Hera gave him a look.

"I'm trying to think positively here." Kanan motioned to the vent.

It look far too long and Hera was just about to move a table over so she could hop up and into the vent to start looking for their wayward Lasat when they caught faint sounds from the vent. Just a minute later Ezra came into view, looking far too proud of himself. And filthy, really filthy.

"Patruu Kanan!" He held out one arm in a pick-me-up gesture, the other holding his stuffed tooka doll tight to his chest. Both arms and the toy were light grey-brown with dust. He'd taken to using the first word for Kanan, with or without his name added on. They weren't quite sure of the meaning, but it was recognizable at least.

"I didn't think the ventilation system needing cleaning that badly." Hera smiled, glad Kanan was the one to reach up and grab Ezra, tugging him out of the vent and into his arms where he left smudges all over Kanan's shirt.

"Well now it's probably much cleaner. And you can give Ezra a bath." Kanan started to hold him out to her.

"Wait, why is that suddenly my job? You usually give him baths." Hera protested, even as Ezra's ears drooped at the word bath and he started to try and wiggle down.

"He got dirty crawling around inside your ship." Kanan argued.

"How about I take care of this?" Hera reached out to get the dusty stuffed tooka doll. "You can't just throw toys in with the clothes, they need to be washed more carefully so they don't fall apart."

"Fine. Come on, kiddo." Kanan hoisted Ezra up over his shoulder where he giggled and tried to grab for his stubby ponytail.

Hera watched them both go with a smile. Kanan complained often enough about having to help Ezra with baths, how the Lasat would whine and flop and protest and try to escape right up until the moment Kanan dropped him in the crate-bathtub. He knew the word no now, and he used it frequently. Then once he was in he was happy, playing with the water and having to be reminded he needed to scrub. Then when it was time to get out it was another chorus of 'no' and attempts to stay in the tub. But when it came down to it, it was very good-natured complaining and if he really minded he'd be very clear. Kanan usually wasn't subtle about things he actually disliked.

* * *

Hera was checking over the plush toy for damp spots when Kanan showed back up Ezra, freshly dried and in a clean set of clothing following at his heels.

"One significantly less filthy kid who's ready for his afternoon nap." Kanan motioned to him.

"And you felt the need to tell me… why?" Hera smiled, just teasing them both.

"Story!" Ezra announced, and then spotted his toy and started reaching for it.

"You heard the kid. And at least he doesn't get into as much trouble when he's sleeping." Kanan said.

"He better not. I reattached the vent cover and checked the others, it should hold for now" Hera reached down to take Ezra's hand, to start leading him towards his bedroom. He didn't like falling asleep on his own, and she couldn't say she blamed him. Not after so many months alone in his parent's house. Once he fell asleep though he slept deep and she didn't have any guilt about leaving him alone to sleep the afternoon away.

Once he was asleep they could discuss the mission coming up. This one Ezra was going to have to stay on the ship for sure. They needed to know the Imperial patrol schedules if they were going to have the best chance of stealing the supplies they wanted, and the local gangs were sure to know exactly when and where Imperial Stormtroopers were likely to be. Even if it wasn't dangerous, which it was, a child would stand out far too much in the rougher parts of town. They didn't need to borrow trouble.

* * *

Kanan made it into a seat on the Phantom, slumping heavily and keeping his hand pressed hard to his chest. Blood had already soaked into his shirt and he grit his teeth against the pain.

Hera got the Phantom up into the air before coming back to get the Phantom's med kit out.

Kanan took his hand away slowly, trying to look down at the wound, unable to see much with the angle and the blood. "I liked this shirt." It came out a little more tense than he intended. It hurt, even if he was fairly sure it wasn't serious. There had been a glancing blow from a knife during a scuffle, cutting fabric and into skin. The criminal gang they were meeting up with for information apparently had rivals who decided that day would be perfect to start something. They'd been caught in the middle, and now they had no information and he had a ruined shirt.

"It's going to be faster to just cut it out of the way." Hera took out supplies from the kit as Kanan reluctantly nodded.

"Do it." Kanan held still as the fabric was cut away and she examined the wound.

"Shallow, but I'll bet it hurts. Some bacta and dermaseal should take care of it." Hera started getting the supplies out of the kit.

"I can get it, you get us back to the ship." Kanan paused, thinking of something. "And tell Chopper to keep Ezra on the other side of the ship, he doesn't need to see me coming in covered in blood. He might think it's worse than it is." And he was aware it would sound selfish, but he was tired, in pain, and the last thing he wanted to do was spend a lot of time trying to console Ezra if he got upset about it.

"I'll tell him." Hera left him to deal with his wound, heading back to the cockpit.

Kanan was glad for the relative privacy, so he could swear and flinch if he wanted to without feeling like he had to be stoic in front of someone else. At least the guy had obviously not known how to use a knife properly, the chest was a terrible target. Yes there were vital organs there, but they were surrounded by bone and muscle. If he'd gone for a gut stab or something they'd be headed with all speed to a medicenter instead of him being able to patch himself up.

Finally he got the last of the dermaseal applied and slumped back in the chair, eyeing his selection of painkillers. There were the ones that made him jittery, the ones that made him drowsy and stupid, and the ones that wouldn't do much more than take the edge off.

"Hera?" Kanan raised his voice enough to be heard in the cockpit.

"Yes?" Her voice came back clearly. More than likely she'd been able to hear all of his quiet cursing, but at least there was the illusion of privacy.

"Do I need to stay awake after we get back?" Kanan asked.

"No, go ahead and take the stronger pain pills." Hera's voice came back and Kanan grabbed up the correct packet, getting a drink and swallowing them down.

"How did you guess?" Kanan settled back, picking at where some of the blood soaked fabric was starting to get tacky.

"It's what I'd be doing. We should be there soon, Chopper's going to try to keep Ezra distracted while you go in." Hera said.

"Good." Kanan relaxed back as best he could to wait.

* * *

Kanan managed to make it to his room without incident, cleaning up and wrapping bandages around, securing them to protect the sealed wound. He was already starting to feel hazy and he hated it, like thinking through swamp water. At least the pain had settled to a dull ache that was easier to ignore as he sank down onto the bunk.

The gang hadn't been their only source of information of Imperial shipment schedules, just the most likely to part with the information for cheap. Soon they'd need to follow up on some of their other sources.

With his eyes closed he could still hear Chopper's indignant beeping outside his door, which made a little more sense when it was answered with a mix of Basic and Lasan. He felt a small twinge of guilt, he usually didn't lock Ezra out, but the kid would be fine. He had his own room now, he had Chopper to keep him company, and he was fairly self-sufficient. Anything else Hera could handle.

After a while the sounds outside quieted and he let himself drift, nearly asleep. And then he heard it.

It started out fairly quiet, at least through the door, and then rapidly increased in volume. The best way he could think to describe it was an angry varactyl mating with a garbage compactor.

Kanan sat up too fast with a soft curse at the sudden flare of pain. The sound didn't seem to have any sign of stopping and he started to the door. His first thought was if Chopper was trying to get Ezra away from the door and Ezra didn't want to go the droid might have managed to actually hurt the little Lasat.

He got the door open just as Hera rounded the corner to the hallway looking just as confused and worried.

He felt a small weight hit his leg and wrap around and the howling cut off abruptly. Kanan looked down to see Ezra wrapped around nearly tight enough to cut off the circulation.

"I didn't know he could even make sounds like that." Hera slowed down as she approached, still concerned but looking a good bit less worried.

"I didn't either." Kanan reached down to pet over Ezra's head.

"Hurt." Ezra said, rolling the r sound a little.

Hera crouched down carefully to rub over Ezra's back and try to get him to let go. "You're hurt?"

Ezra shook his head, looking up at Kanan . "Patruu Hurt."

"I'm fine, I promise. Just a scratch." He'd wanted to avoid this, speaking soothingly as Ezra slowly started to let go. He glanced at Hera, not sure if it was just the drugs making him feel stupid or if he'd missed something. "How did he know?"

Hera shrugged. "Maybe he could smell the blood." She waited until Ezra let go to tug him back, picking him up as she stood.

"I'm fine, kid. Just don't ever make that sound again." Kanan rubbed a hand over his face. "And I'm going to lay back down."

"Do you want me to try and keep him away from the door?" Hera offered.

"Maybe. No, the worst is done. As long as he doesn't try to jump on my chest or something he can come in and out." Kanan reached to rub the back of his finger over Ezra's soft cheek fluff. "I think he's going to end up spoiled."

"Maybe, but it will probably take more than just reassuring him that you're not badly hurt." Hera moved to put Ezra back on the ground, as Kanan made his way over to the bed. His chest still ached from the sudden movement before, but it was starting to fade back into the painkiller's haze.

Kanan wasn't too surprised that Ezra padded after him, waiting until he eased back down on the bottom bunk to haul himself up after him.

"Don't touch my chest or I'll have to change my mind about locking you out, and I'll get earplugs." Kanan warned. He placed his hand by the bandages. "Don't touch." He'd had good luck with Ezra listening to that phrase before. He waited for the nod before he closed his eyes. He could feel Ezra shift, and then the warm weight settled against his side tucking up against him. It wasn't anywhere near touching his chest so he let himself drift, eventually slipping into sleep.

* * *

Kanan wasn't sure how long he slept, but it felt like he'd slept through the evening and night and he felt better. His chest ached some when he moved, but not so badly that he couldn't ignore the pain even without the help of painkillers. There were a few exercises he remembered from a lifetime ago that worked well enough to help deal with it. He was alone in his room, and not surprised. Even if Ezra had fallen asleep in his room he would have woken up long before him, and he wasn't even entirely sure he had. His memories were a little hazy, aside from remembering the horrible screeching sounds the kid was apparently capable of making. He wouldn't have been surprised if once Ezra reassured himself that Kanan wasn't dying that the kid had gone off to play elsewhere.

He started to haul himself out of bed, even if he wasn't at his best there was still work to do. He paused as something tumbled out from under the covers, landing with a soft sound on the floor. Curious, he peered after the unexpected object. Ezra's little tooka doll stared up at him with its shiny button eyes.

Kanan smiled, oddly touched by the gesture. He carefully bent to retrieve the doll and place it back onto the bunk. After he shaved he'd make sure to return it properly to its owner.


	7. Chapter 7

"Ready to play prisoner?" Kanan held up the modified restraint cuffs, getting a grin from Ezra.

"Yes!" Ezra held his arms out, wrists together for Kanan to carefully fit the cuffs on, checking them.

Ezra had been with them for months now, and in some ways it was hard to remember what it had been like before they found him on Lothal. He stayed on the ship if things might be dangerous and rarely got himself into trouble anymore. If things were safer he got to come out with them wherever they might be and he got to experience all sorts of different worlds. And very rarely, if the risk was worth it, he got to help them out on their missions.

Kanan didn't want to overuse the ruse, but so far it had been successful. He had a set of stolen Stormtrooper armor and cuffs broken to make sure they only looked like they locked. Ezra could unfasten them easily himself or a hard enough tug would cause them to come open. They weren't taking any chances on them actually being used as restraints should a plan go awry, but without a close examination they looked real enough. Together they didn't look any different from any other Stormtrooper escorting a non-human prisoner around.

It wasn't entirely risk-free, nothing was, but they'd done everything they could to make it as safe as they could, especially for Ezra. If anything Ezra enjoyed getting a chance to play-act and trick the Imperials, and he definitely enjoyed the fact they did their best to make it up to him afterwards. His spoken Basic was slowly improving, and he understood most of what they said even if he wasn't always sure how to reply. Kanan did feel a little guilty that they hadn't made as much progress figuring out how to speak Lasan in return, but it wasn't like there was anyone who spoke both they could ask, or any how-to guides. A protocol droid might know the language, but it wasn't like they were just left laying around all over the place. As long as Ezra could understand them it was a lower priority.

Kanan checked over his weapons and then ruffled Ezra's hair. The strip of it was starting to grow out again, and Kanan wasn't sure if he should cut it or not. For now at least it didn't seem to be getting in Ezra's way and he made a quiet churring sound, headbutting into the ruffle. The more time he'd spent around them the more relaxed Ezra had gotten with his vocalizations. It had started both him and Hera the first time he'd been brushing out Ezra's longer fur and the content little Lasat had purred.

"Remember, anything goes wrong you run. Right back here to the Ghost, I can take care of myself. Got it?" Kanan waved a finger at him, making sure Ezra nodded.

"Right, right back here." Ezra grinned.

"Good." Kanan patted his shoulder then stood up, putting on the helmet and starting to walk. Ezra scrambled to stay out in front as they left the Ghost, settling into his place just in front of Kanan and then slumping dejectedly. He gave his best impression of a sad prisoner being forced into this against his will. It was a little overdone, but Kanan wasn't going to complain. He was just grateful it had worked so far.

Their target was a political prisoner, the plan was to get inside the prison facility, upload a data spike that would allow them to take down the entire security system for ten to twenty minutes. It should be just enough time to stage a jailbreak, their specific target and anyone else they could free in the process. Kanan would set the spike and then if it was safe take himself and Ezra both back out, and if it wasn't lay low until time to take the security system down. Then they'd get free in the chaos. No matter what Kanan wasn't letting Ezra out of his sight.

* * *

Kanan hadn't been paying much attention, getting the usual amount of ignoring from the other people in Imperial uniform and the occasional dirty look from the people who actually lived in the town. Suddenly a warning screamed across his awareness and he started ducking even before he heard the angry roar. Even as fast as he reacted it wasn't quite fast enough and something large and blunt clipped his head hard enough to make him see stars, even with the helmet to protect him. He stumbled, going to his knees and fighting as hard as he could against passing out.

After a moment Kanan was able to reach up, struggling to get the dented helmet off, feeling trapped. Everything was still kind of swimmy but he was aware of two things, one was that Ezra had latched onto him in a panic and was babbling something in Lasan. The other was that someone was standing over him and he looked up, and up, blinking up at someone who looked a lot like Ezra's parents had in the holo, only dusky purple grey. And he looked angry, but also a little stunned.

"What do you think you're doing with that kitten?"

* * *

Kanan had considered a lot of potential disaster scenarios when he was planning the mission. What if the guards wanted to see further proof of prisoner transfer? What if someone important arrived and security doubled? What if the planet exploded? There were a lot of what-ifs to consider and worry about. One he'd honestly never considered though was running into an actual angry adult Lasat.

"I know this looks bad…" Kanan put a hand on Ezra's back, feeling him tremble with tension. The adult Lasat took a step closer and Ezra shouted the word Kanan recognized as 'no', and then a string of something else punctuated with a fairly vicious sounding growl. He could recognize 'patruu' and his own name, but the rest he didn't know and he suddenly really wished he did. The other Lasat obviously understood and he was staring at the two of them in shock.

"Look, whatever's going on this is way too public a place to discuss it. You're going to attract all the wrong kinds of attention." A second person stepped into his field of vision, someone in a full set of distinctively Mandalorian armor and helmet, easily nudging the much larger Lasat out of his way like it was nothing and reaching down to offer him a hand. "I'm guessing this is a lot more complicated than it looked."

"You can say that." Kanan took the gloved hand a little dumbly, hauling himself to his feet and swaying a little, automatically wrapping an arm around Ezra to hold him. With the grip the kid had on him he didn't think he was going to get him off with anything short of a pry bar.

Kanan was fine with letting the Mandalorian take charge for the moment, following him off the main road and back through an alley. It was an awkward silence until they arrived at a door and he swiped a key, letting them all into the room. It looked temporary, like someplace that had been rented. Once they were all inside the Mandalorian locked the door, crossing his arms but not yet removing his helmet.

"Now that we're a little less likely to all get arrested, what's going on?" He looked back and forth between the adult Lasat and Kanan.

"The kitten said not to hurt the human, he's taking care of him. Care to explain?" The adult Lasat growled it out, still not looking comfortable with the whole situation.

"I am taking care of him, looking like a prisoner is a scam. I needed to get into the prison complex, and Ezra makes a convincing prisoner. We get in, we get out safe. The cuffs aren't even real." Kanan didn't want to give too many details about their mission, but he could see that in the scramble one side had come free as it was designed to do and was dangling off one wrist, leaving Ezra's hands free.

The Lasat gave him a doubtful look, then back to Ezra, speaking more gently this time in Lasan. Ezra hesitated a moment, glancing to Kanan before he answered.

Kanan felt awkward not having any idea what Ezra was saying. He knew it shouldn't be anything bad, but sometimes things could be misinterpreted. Eventually though the other Lasat relaxed some, looking back to Kanan.

"He agrees with you. Says you dress up, go into bad places and free people trapped there. "

"That's the gist of it." Kanan was privately relieved. He'd worried about how much Ezra really understood about what they were doing, that it seemed wrong to take advantage of him, but hearing a more simplified version of what they did made it clear he understood the basics at least.

"A good thing we stopped you then, if you were planning to keep a low profile. Rumor has it that an Imperial agent is visiting the facility, one who takes a personal interest in Lasat. There's a good chance he'd take notice of both of you." The Mandalorian spoke up from where he'd been keeping an eye on the door.

"How would you know about that?" Kanan looked between them both, frowning and rubbing at the side of his head. He could feel the lump starting to form where the helmet hadn't entirely protected him, but he could mostly ignore the ache for now. He paused as a thought struck him. "You two were going to do basically the same thing, weren't you? Bounty hunter shows up with a Lasat knowing someone's going to pay well for them and then you scam them?"

That got him a chuckle from the Mandalorian "Good guess. Except we still have every intention of continuing with it."

"And we still need to get those prisoners free." Kanan said, holding up a hand "Look, we both want to mess things up for the Empire here, how about we see if we can come up with something that works out for both of us?"

"We're listening." The Lasat crossed his arms.

"I'm… alright. I'm not entirely sure yet." Kanan said a little sheepishly. "But there's got to be a way. Let me check in with someone." He waited for the tense nod, then got out the com. He didn't want to give away too much, since com signals could be intercepted, but Hera needed to know what was going on.

"Well?" The lasat grumbled.

Kanan nodded to himself then ended the transmission. "How do you feel about moving somewhere else for a strategy session?"

* * *

The walk to the Ghost took longer than he would have liked, especially as none of them wanted their odd group to draw attention. The only one who seemed utterly unconcerned was Ezra. After about a minute he'd spoken up, and then it finally seemed to click that someone could understand him easily and he spend most of the trip talking without ever seeming to need to take a breath. The other Lasat occasionally spoke to fill the rare pauses, with a look somewhere between worried and bemused.

Hera was waiting for them outside the ship, sizing up both of the newcomers fairly blatantly.

"You must be Hera." The lasat spoke first "The name's Zeb."

Hera glanced at Kanan, one tattooed on eyebrow arched in silent surprise. "I am.

Kanan held up his hands "I didn't say a word."

Zeb chuckled "The kitten described you fairly well."

"I see. We haven't really gotten a chance to discuss not talking with strangers." Hera said.

"Sabine, of house Wren." The Mandalorian tugged the burgundy and purple painted helmet off. Under it she looked human, with short cut blue hair and light brown skin with olive undertones and if he had to hazard a guess Kanan would say somewhere in her mid to late twenties. It could be hard to tell, people who spent a good deal of time on ships or otherwise away from solar radiation took longer to show signs of aging.

"You're a woman." Kanan said, startled, then mentally kicked himself.

"And you're ugly." Sabine relied back without missing a beat. "Now we seem to have some information that could be valuable to you, and you'd rather we didn't interfere in your plans, so maybe we can come to an agreement."

"I'd say it's worth discussing." Hera nodded to the ramp. "Let's take it inside."

Kanan relaxed a little, if Hera didn't want anything to do with them she'd have picked a more neutral location. He was getting a better feel for how she managed making contacts, and he wasn't going to argue. He was long past ready to be out of the armor and back into what he normally wore, if only so Ezra's claws would stop scratching across the smooth plates trying to find a better hold and sending unpleasant shivers along his nerves.

"What else did Ezra describe for you?" Kanan asked, trying not to sound too concerned.

"A lot about your ship, and that you go different places, and you won't let him touch your weapons and he's not allowed some places without one of you two there." Zeb snorted softly. "Probably much what any kit would say." The last part came out a little more wistfully.

"That sounds about right. Look, how about you go with Hera and I'm going to get changed." Kanan also intended to get Ezra out of the old raggedy clothing he played prisoner in and into something that made him look a little less like a street-rat.

"Right." Zeb gave him a look and then turned to follow Hera, leaving Kanan to duck towards his rooms and maybe take a detour by the medikit. He wasn't going to hold the violent introduction against the newcomers, it was entirely understandable, but that didn't mean his head didn't still ache.

* * *

Kanan watched Ezra as he continued to babble to Zeb, occasionally punctuating it with hand gestures, some excited enough that he nearly toppled over. He'd settled down some from how energetic he was before though, and a quick glance at the chrono confirmed that it was starting to get close to when Ezra usually napped the afternoon away. They had collectively decided it would be easier to let Hera and Sabine do the negotiating, away from where Ezra was still fascinated with the adult Lasat.

Kanan was still sorting out his own emotions involving the whole situation. On one hand he was glad, it was hard not to be seeing how excited Ezra was, but that came hand in hand with guilt. What if they'd tried harder to find a guide for his language? Spent more time actually one on one teaching him Basic instead of playing with him and just correcting him as he picked it up on his own? And then there was a more serious consideration, it had been easy to drag things out on finding him a foster family knowing that they knew as much or more about Lasat than anyone who could take him in.

Zeb, though, was actually a Lasat. That didn't automatically mean he wanted to raise a kid, but it did mean he was better suited for it than either of them. They could argue that Zeb and Sabine were both bounty hunters and that was no life for a small child, but it wasn't like they were much better.

Kanan was so caught up in his thoughts it took him a minute to realize Zeb had motioned him over. He got up, trying not to second guess himself as he walked over.

"Wanted to give the kid a look over, make sure there's not anything going on health-wise that might have been missed." Zeb said.

"Alright, what do you need me for?" Kanan crossed his arms.

Zeb just gave him a look like he was being dense. "To hold the kit, for one. And because you're his Patruu."

"Alright. What does that mean anyway? Is it something like a parent?" Kanan asked, not entire sure if he wanted confirmation of what he suspected.

"Nah, it's not a parent." Zeb said too casually. Which wasn't at all what Kanan expected to hear, bristling even as he sat down to hold Ezra in his lap.

"What's it mean then?" Kanan tried not to sound defensive.

"Closest would probably be Uncle, but even that's not quite right. It means a trusted friend of the family who's not related, but he still gets to help raise the kittens." Zeb stated it fairly matter of fact.

"So I'm an uncle." Kanan blinked, and then let go of a little tension he didn't even realize he was carrying. He didn't know anything about being a father, he'd never had one. He'd known the term of course, both as the organism that supplied the smaller gamete to the offspring and in the social sense, but it had been pure academics for most of his childhood. He'd had plenty of adults who'd cared for him, crèche tenders and teachers, but that wasn't the same. The thought that Ezra hadn't been expecting him to live up to a role he had no idea how to play was strangely reassuring.

"I guess that makes what he's been calling Hera his aunt?" Kanan asked, even as Zeb spoke softly to Ezra in Lasan then got out a small but bright glowrod to peer into first one oversized pointed ear, then the other.

"Supposed to. Had to correct him some there." Zeb chuckled, ruffling the top of Ezra's head with a giant hand. "Aunt and uncle are two different words, but I think he only learned the one for uncle. So he tried to just make it feminine instead. Miss Uncle."

"Miss Uncle?" Kanan smiled at that one. He'd have to find the right time to tell Hera about that one. That was another thing that was a relief, he and Hera were… he thought he was fairly safe in calling them both friends instead of just crewmates, but his initial showy attempts at flirting and later more hopeful attempts were met with polite or not so polite disinterest until Kanan took the hint. If Ezra had expected them to be a romantic couple like his parents he would have been disappointed.

Zeb touched Ezra's chin, waiting for the kid to open his mouth before peering in with the light. Zeb looked startled at what he found, tugging Ezra's lower lip down to get a better look.

"Everything ok there?" Kanan didn't think they'd done a bad job getting Ezra to brush his teeth. One of them usually managed it at least once every 24 hours. Unless Lasat weren't supposed to brush.

"Kit's tall for his age. He's still got all of his kitten teeth, usually they start falling out around nine." Zeb let Ezra close his mouth and the Lasat kit leaned back against Kanan's chest, blinking slowly in the way Kanan knew meant he was getting sleepy. It meant he was more willing to hold still for this kind of examination at least.

"Oh." Kanan wasn't sure what to say to that. Was tall a good thing?

"He looks healthy." Zeb finally admitted, after he'd looked over him a little longer. "Kind of skinny."

"That could be the gravity." Sabine spoke up, as she and Hera entered the galley. "You've said that Lasat rarely left Lasan and never established many colonies off planet because of the difference in gravity. If he's spent his whole life off planet he'd never have developed the bone and muscle mass a kitten his age would normally have."

Zeb thought on it, then nodded slowly. "Makes sense. Do you know why his parents were offworld?"

Hera shook her head, lekku drooping. "They left a great deal of information on their planet's government, but next to nothing on their family. We don't even know why they would live their entire life offworld and never teach Ezra any of the main languages."

Zeb looked thoughtful at that, questioning Ezra gently. Kanan felt Ezra's body tense, curling up a little in on himself, an obvious sign he was thinking back to his parents. Kanan stroked over the fur on his upper arm, trying to be soothing. Logically he knew Ezra needed to grieve the past in his own way, but it didn't mean he had to like seeing him hurt.

Finally Ezra gave a halting answer, speaking slowly as if he was trying to remember the exact phrasing.

"He says… One day he asked why they sometimes spoke so he couldn't understand them. His mother said because they were keeping secrets, and if others thought he knew a secret they'd try and make him tell it, even if he had promised not to. " Sabine spoke up after a long moment, when it became clear Zeb didn't look like he could manage it.

"They were trying to keep him safe, even when speaking out against the Empire." Hera said, sounding resigned.

Kanan understood well enough. Hera didn't tell him anything more than he needed to know when they were working. Sometimes it was probably everything, or close to it, but often enough it was 'go here, pick up this marked crate, don't open it, bring it straight back.' And he never questioned it. He thought of himself as an exceptionally good actor, but it was even easier to play dumb when you truly had no idea.

"And instead they made sure he'd be lost, unable to ask for help when they got caught." Sabine sounded like she was angry, but keeping it under control, Zeb simply got up without a word and walked out, footfalls heavy on the floor of the ship.

"I don't think they planned on getting caught." Hera said evenly.

"They still should have had a backup plan." Sabine argued. "Instead of putting whatever they had planned before their own son."

"They might have, we don't know. If he knew the word for uncle, he probably had one at some point. And they may have been counting on being able to return to Lasan if things got hot. Sometimes it doesn't matter how many backup plans you have, everything still goes tits up." Kanan knew the last part from bitter experience. "Speculating on if they were reckless or not doesn't help anything now, and it's upsetting the kid."

Sabine took a breath, then nodded. "Sorry, Ezra. It's ok. No one's angry with you." She quirked her lip up in a smile. "I'd tell you that a little better, but my accent's atrocious and I still mispronounce more than I get right."

"You know how to speak Lasan then?" Hera asked, and Sabine nodded.

"Some of it, there's a set of sounds that are below human hearing that go with some words. Those I can't make without electronic help. I've picked up a fair bit though." Sabine paused, then grinned wryly. "And if you have any questions you didn't want to ask the big guy because they're a little personal, I might be able to answer them for you."

"Is it normal that he sleeps all afternoon?" Kanan asked the first thing that came to mind, especially since now that things were less tense Ezra was starting to relax back against his chest.

"Four or five hours in the afternoon and then four or five at night? Yeah. Lasat are… I'm blanking on the word, not nocturnal, but active at dawn and dusk. When he gets older he'll be able to manage a more human sleep schedule if he has to, but two short sleep cycles is always going to be more natural for him." Sabine answered without having to think too much about it.

"What about diet?" Hera asked, and Kanan was glad she thought of it. Ezra seemed healthy so far, but…

"If he's on human standard then you'll want to up the protein portion by about fifteen to twenty percent and bring down the carbohydrates the same amount. The good part is he should be able to eat most anything, they're scavengers and can eat food long past the point it's spoiled for human consumption. " Sabine said.

"That explains a few things." Kanan said, half to himself, and then spoke louder. "It sounds almost like you're hinting that you're planning on leaving him with us instead of trying to claim him. If you are, there's not much reason to answer these kinds of questions. " It was blunt, and maybe too soon, but he didn't want to dance around the subject.

Sabine stared at him, confusion written on her face, and then her eyes widened. "Karabast, no wonder you two keep sizing us up. You think we'd just try to take him?"

"It's not that we think you'd try to take him, exactly. But… " Hera tried to make it sound a little less accusatory.

"But you think that we're going to ask and it would be hard to say no, for the kit's sake." Sabine reached up to rub her fingers through her short blue hair, ruffling it. "I don't know. Right now the job does come first, before we even think about anything like that. And I'm not going to speak for Zeb. "

"We'll discuss options later." Hera said, and then reached out pet over Ezra's head. "For now he should probably go back to his room, so he stops trying to stay awake to listen to us."

"Not sleepy." Ezra protested, even with his eyes half shut.

"I know, you're going anyway." Kanan stood up with him. He gave Hera a curious look and she nodded, holding up a finger. They'd have at least four hours while Ezra slept to carry out whatever new plan Hera and Sabine had agreed on. Normally Ezra was good about staying behind during a mission, but between the appearance of Zeb and the fact he was originally going to be doing the mission with them Kanan didn't trust Ezra not to try and follow.

They'd get things taken care of and then… then they'd figure out what was going to happen with Ezra.

* * *

Author Note: And now Zeb has arrived! I hope it was worth the wait. I rushed to get the latest chapters out since Legends of the Lasat aired this week (Check it out if you haven't already! It's my favorite episode of Season 2 so far). Because of this I'm afraid it will be a little longer before the next update, but don't worry. I will get the next chapter ready as soon as I can.


	8. Chapter 8

lZeb needed to focus, but it wasn't coming easily. He was so close, it had taken years to track down the names of those involved in Lasan's destruction, and even longer to wait for the opportunity. Kallus was one of the highest ranking Imperials they'd managed to track down, and no doubt after they eliminated him things would get more difficult. The Empire was bound to find out what they were doing sooner or later and hunt them down in return, and he'd halfway welcomed it. It wouldn't bring Lasan back, but he could at least avenge his people.

He hadn't thought he'd ever see any other Lasat again, much less a kitten. He didn't know how to feel about that. Vengeance was less complicated with no others involved. But should it be? It was potentially far more important to take out threats like Kallus now. There was no telling what he'd do if he got ahold of a kitten like Ezra. At that, probably the best he could hope for would be a quick execution, but he could also be used as bait for rescue attempts.

Zeb didn't know much about the people currently raising Ezra. The kitten seemed happy enough, he was obviously being taken care of. If they were putting him in dangerous situations sometimes, well, better someone who knew they were in danger and were cautious than those people who believed themselves safe.

It wasn't like he had any business raising a kid anyway. Ezra was smart, he'd already made a lot of progress learning Basic, he'd be better off if Zeb didn't go shoving his way in and making a mess of things.

Sabine came close enough to bump his arm lightly with her shoulder, just a brush really, but it was enough to ground him again. They had a job to do. At some point soon chaos was going to break loose when Kanan set off the prison break and if their timing worked out wrong they could miss their target. If they timed it right though, the chaos would only be good for them. Reinforcements would have to be split between their attack and trying to control the prison break. Zeb flexed his fingers, looking over to where his bo-rifle was strapped securely to Sabine's back waiting for him to take it. It wouldn't be long now.

* * *

Kanan was grateful that in the chaos no one seemed to be shooting at him. Then again, he was wearing the right uniform. The security was fairly low, most of these people were minor annoyances to the Empire. They weren't expecting a prison break, and most of the people were just scattering into the town around them. Kanan wished them luck. His own objective was a scrawny human scientist, timid and jumping at everything, and Kanan was always grateful to see the Phantom. He herded the man over and to the opening ramp.

"Get in, you're safe now." Kanan motioned up the ramp and the scientist didn't need to be told twice. Well, they were mostly safe, once they were in the air if Hera couldn't outmaneuver the anti-aircraft fire he'd be shocked.

Kanan started up the ramp and then paused. He had one of the nagging feelings that he should probably ignore, but… He touched his comlink to keep from shouting.

"Phantom, think you could wait? I want to go back in and check something out."

"Negative Specter One, get on. We're getting out of here." Hera's voice came over the com.

Kanan hit the ramp close button and then made a quick exit.

"I'm going back. If you can, come back and pick me up after the objective is secure. If not I'll take the long way." Kanan wasn't entirely sure he was making the best choice, but he wanted to at least see the two bounty hunters make it out.

He headed back in, moving warily and aware he had to watch for two different enemies. If any of the actual guards or troopers realized he wasn't one of them he'd be dodging fire there, and if he ran into Zeb or Sabine they'd likely shoot first and ask questions later.

Kanan got back inside the building, looking around. No sign of them and he felt foolish, until he heard a distant roar. Odds were good he knew exactly who was capable of producing a rage-filled sound and he started trotting quickly towards it.

There were blast doors in his way, but the codes he had for unlocking the prisoners worked just as well on those doors and as he opened the last door in his way he was immediately met with the sounds of battle.

Zeb was going toe to toe with a human. Kanan didn't immediately recognize the uniform, it was in blacks and greys and the black helmet lacked a faceplate. The human had a similar energy staff to the one Zeb was wielding and was using it with a surprising amount of skill.

Kanan approached, blaster drawn as the two kept exchanging blows and keeping him from a clean shot. Zeb was obviously well trained, but his attacks were less controlled than he would have expecting and as he made it closer he suspected he knew the reason why.

The human, he had to be their target, was taunting Zeb. Kanan didn't need to hear the exact words, the tone and what he could catch through the crackle of the weapons meeting and glancing away was enough. Lasan. Slaughter. Coward.

Whatever the man said next was drowned out into another of those roars of rage, but even when Zeb just started the swing Kanan could see it was going to go wide. The man dodged back and then went in, striking Zeb hard on the side of the head. Zeb's legs buckled out from under him and he went down hard. The man raised the energy staff, not paying any attention to Kanan.

The stun blast hit the chestplate on the first shot, the energy dissipating on it but sending him staggering back a step. The second shot sent him down, stunned, and Kanan yanked off his helmet as he jogged over to both of them, kneeling down beside Zeb.

"Don't be dead." Kanan felt at the Lasat's neck, looking for a pulse. He heard the soft hiss of one of the other doors opening and reached for his blaster.

Sabine strode through the doors as soon as they started to open, weapons drawn and ready. They lowered slightly when they saw Kanan. "What happened? We got separated and then the bastard locked everything down. Is he…?"

"He's breathing, we need to get out of here before anyone else shows up." Kanan could feel a pulse under his fingers and he hoped Zeb was just stunned.

"Right." Sabine holstered her blasters, crouching down and patting Zeb's cheek firmly. "Zeb! Wake up. You need to get up."

Kanan held his breath. He wasn't entirely sure even with the two of them they'd be able to drag Zeb, much less lift him. Then Zeb groaned, eyes-half opening.

"Just like that, big guy. Come on, stand up." Kanan added to the encouragement, getting under Zeb's shoulder to lift.

Between the two of them they got him mostly upright and on his feet. Kanan grabbed for his comlink.

"Specter One to Phantom. I hope you're able to make that pickup."

"On my way." Hera's voice came over the com and Kanan breathed a sigh of relief.

"We'll meet you there." Kanan closed it and nodded to Sabine. She had returned Zeb's energy staff to the shorter length and had it strapped to her back again.

"Lead the way." Her voice was flattened by the helmet speaker, but he liked to think he could hear approval in it.

* * *

It was closer than Kanan would have liked, getting Zeb into the Phantom. He was a little steadier by the time they made it out, but walking was about all he could do. Multiple times they had to stop and return fire. The last little bit onto the Phantom was a scramble and they barely made it out before heavier fire could be brought against the shuttle.

Kanan let Zeb's arm slip off his shoulder as the Lasat sagged into one of the Phantom's seats.

"Thanks." Zeb rumbled, reaching up to rub at his forehead. Kanan didn't envy him the wicked stun headache he had to be dealing with, even if his own head was still sore from the misunderstanding earlier.

"Thank you." Sabine echoed, tugging off her helmet. "You didn't have to come back for us."

"You're welcome." Kanan tried to think of anything to add on as to why he came back, but everything either sounded too flippant or not quite right in his head.

Sabine gave him a searching look. "You know, if you hadn't come back for us, you wouldn't have had to worry about us having any kind of claim on the kit."

Kanan just blinked in shock before the words truly registered. "I…. what?"

Sabine chuckled at that, sounding tired. "Yeah. That's what I thought. You didn't even think of that, did you?"

"I'm not that cold." Kanan protested.

"Enough people are." Sabine put a hand on Zeb's shoulder. "We owe you one."

"We can talk about that later." Kanan shrugged, ready to get out of the armor for a good long while.

* * *

Hera slowly worked on untangling Ezra from his bundle of blankets, getting a sleepy protest.

"I know, you'd rather sleep a little more, but you're not going to be happy if you wake up and they're gone." Hera spoke as she finally uncovered the Lasat kit, scooping him up into her arms as he yawned. Truthfully Sabine and Zeb probably would have stuck around as long as it took before heading back to their own ship, but it was easier not to make them come up with the excuses. Ezra had slept all through the mission and rescue, he'd be fine waking up a little early.

Hera carried him out where Sabine and Zeb were waiting. Zeb has slumped at the table, making a good effort to look like he was just relaxing instead of unsteady on his feet. Both he and Sabine had shrugged it off, that stuff like this happened and after a day or so it would be like nothing happened. Zeb didn't want to worry the kit. Hera privately thought he was underestimating how observant Ezra was, but she wasn't about to try and correct him.

Sure enough once they got within sight Ezra stiffened and twisted around to give Zeb a hard look before taking on a scolding tone. Zeb looked like he'd been hit in the back of the head before protesting, and Sabine burst into laughter.

"Someone fill me in here?" Kanan glanced between them.

"Ezra accused you and Zeb of fighting again." Sabine supplied the translation, still looking amused.

"Pretty much." Zeb grumbled, switching back to Basic.

"You told him I was the one who actually saved you, right?" Kanan said, smiling at the exchange.

"More or less." Zeb grumbled, though it looked like he was trying to hide an amused expression.

"In a more serious topic," Hera spoke up after a moment, bending to put Ezra down so he could go wherever he wanted. "I wanted to know if you'd given my offer any more thought. Sabine, Zeb, you're both obviously skilled people with cause to want to fight back against the Empire. You could help us, and we could help you. It would be mutually beneficial." She looked between them, trying to assess. In many ways they were exactly the kind of people she hoped to find. They had skills that would make them useful as independent agents, or as part of a group. With direction they could do a great deal of good.

She could admit her own selfishness in the matter too, the odds of finding another Lasat weren't ones she'd bet on. She didn't have any way to know if Zeb even liked kids, but he didn't seem to dislike Ezra and her gut instinct was that he and Sabine were both good people at heart. If they weren't a good fit as members of her crew then at the very least it seemed like they'd provide Ezra a boost in learning Basic, which would be a benefit.

"I'm afraid the answer is still maybe." Sabine exchanged a look with Zeb before answering. "We've got a few professional obligations to see through. If we dropped everything and joined you we'd be burning a lot of important bridges and making enemies of people we'd rather not have as enemies."

"I've never known bounty hunters to be that concerned with professional relations. Most of the stories I've heard involve someone or other getting stabbed in the back." Kanan spoke up.

Sabine chuckled darkly at that. "That's part of business. Being ruthless is understandable, just flaking off on a lark is something else entirely. If we just quit people would take it as a sign of contempt. Give us six months, then we can give you a better answer."

"In six months I might not be interested in adding to my crew." Hera warned. Even if more than likely it was a hollow threat. Unless her inquiries turned up anything more damning than an old family connection to Death Watch then it was doubtful she'd want to go back on the offer.

"Then it wasn't meant to be." Sabine shrugged slightly, seemingly unconcerned even as she noticed Ezra reaching for her helmet where it was on the table, picking it up and holding it down for him to examine before he could yank it off and to the floor.

* * *

Hera stood on the ramp to watch them go. Zeb was moving slow, but insisted he didn't need any sort of transport and Sabine had rolled her eyes in an expression that Hera recognized all too well. What was it with people being stubborn about showing weakness?

She wasn't entirely sure if she would hear from them in six months, or ever. They had left ways to get in touch with them, but only time would tell if this was going to work out.

Hera startled as from somewhere back in the ship something crashed hard enough to vibrate the floor of the ship.

"I said don't climb on that!"

She shook her head ruefully as she closed the ramp to head back inside. There was enough to worry about her crew right at the moment without wondering about the months ahead.


	9. Chapter 9

Kanan sighed and ran a hand over his hair in annoyance. Zeb and Sabine had said they could contact them for any questions, but he hated admitting when he was stumped. When it was in Ezra's best interest though…

"So. Hi. Anyway. The kid just ate a whole fish, bones and all. Do we need to rush him to a med center?"

"Pretty big, I mean not huge, he swallowed it whole. Maybe the size of my hand?"

"It's not like I thought he'd actually be able to catch it! I thought he was just playing."

"Right. So if he acts fine we don't, if he has a little stomach upset it should be fine. If it lasts longer than 48 hours we should."

"Do you have to use such descriptive terms? I get it. Thanks."

* * *

"He found my clippers and shaved a patch on his arm. Is that going to hurt anything or can we just wait for it to grow back?"

* * *

"He's decided he hates purple fruit. Anything purple. He's always loved it before. Is this a problem or just him being weird? And is it a bad thing if I just peel it so he doesn't see the purple?"

* * *

"Yeah, I know I just sent you a transmission yesterday but he's getting really upset about this. Normally we're pretty good at guessing what he wants but he keeps saying something about Nat… Natalie? "

"NATALI!"

"… Yeah, that was him."

"It would be easier to translate in person, just send the coordinates for someplace we can meet up and we'll join you there." Sabine replied over the transmission, and Kanan tried not to look annoyed. How much translation could one word need?

"Got it, sending coordinates now." There was a city fairly close by on the planet they were on, close enough that it shouldn't be a hassle and no large Imperial complexes. Those were located elsewhere on the planet. Even for Empire Day there shouldn't be too much Imperial presence.

Kanan ended the transmission and reached down to grab up Ezra before the Lasat could start climbing his leg like a tree. The kid never remembered how sharp his claws were.

"Natali tomorrow." Ezra said stubbornly once he was up in Kanan's arms.

"I know, you've been saying that. I've tried naming everything related to Empire Day I can think of, you'll just have to wait until we see Sabine and Zeb. You'll like that, right?" Kanan ruffled Ezra's hair trying to cheer him up and distract him from whatever he was so determined to say.

"Yes." Ezra still looked a little disgruntled, but nowhere near as distressed and frustrated at the lack of communication as he was before. Kanan breathed a sigh of relief. Ezra usually didn't get fixated on trying to get them to understand. If they weren't getting it he usually just gave up after a couple tries. If it was important enough to Ezra that he kept trying it was worth taking a few hours to figure out.

* * *

The market was busy, bustling with people. It was a few blocks away from the main parade route, far enough away to give Kanan some peace of mind and ease the urge to cause some sort of disruption to the nice shiny propaganda. The people here at least didn't seem to care much for the mandatory holiday aside from it being a good excuse to try and pedal their wares to the gathered crowds.

There were enough people there and Ezra was still short enough that Kanan was glad he didn't protest at being held onto. It would have been far too easy for him to slip off and get lost and Kanan had no intention of spending all day looking for him.

Finally he spotted Zeb towering over most of the crowd, and Sabine likely wasn't far. He made his way, tugging Ezra along.

"Yeah, I know, it's all exciting. There'll be time to look around later." Kanan reassured him, hoping he wasn't having to lie to him. It should just be a social trip, they were just meeting up with Sabine and Zeb and then leaving.

"There you are." Sabine spoke when they got close, carrying her helmet on her hip.

"We're here, what was so complicated you had to explain it in person?" Kanan asked.

"Eh, not so much explaining it. But can't very well give a gift over transmission. Happy name day, kit. Felix di natali." Zeb crouched low and handed over a small bundle wrapped in colorful cloth and tied up with string. Ezra grabbed at it eagerly. "Might want to open it back on the ship though, so you don't lose it."

"It's Ezra's name day?" Kanan blinked. "And you didn't think to tell me that? What if we'd wanted to do something?"

"Well now you're doing something." Sabine didn't seem concerned, to his annoyance. "We have time to look around, if you're game."

"I'm game." Kanan reached down to pick Ezra up, so he could have a better view than people's knees. Ezra made a content chirrup sound at that, clutching the bundle tightly.

* * *

By the time they made it back to the ship there were two more presents to carry. One was a small container of the sweets Ezra liked, and the other was a blanket that caught his eye. It was woven to change colors between blue and green depending on how the light hit it, and it was surprisingly soft. Ezra had been fascinated with it, and since it was a fair price Kanan went ahead and got it. It wasn't like it would go to waste with the way the Lasat kit liked to roll up into a blanket nest to sleep.

Hera met them at the ramp and Kanan held out the bagged up items.

"He's been trying to tell us that his name day's the same day as Empire day. You want to gift him the sweets or the blanket?" Kanan was glad to hand them over, they weren't heavy exactly but trying to make sure Ezra stayed in place and juggle carrying anything else wasn't the easiest task.

"I'll take the sweets." Hera took both the packages, nodding to Sabine and Zeb "It's good to see the two of you again."

"We were in the system, didn't seem to be much point in staying away." Zeb said rubbed a hand behind his head as he followed them up the ramp into the cargo hold.

Kanan crouched down to get Ezra off his shoulders once they were inside the ship proper. "If you remember today's your name day, you don't remember how old you are, do you?" At Ezra's shrug Kanan just smiled slightly "Worth a shot."

"Ready to open your present now?" Sabine asked. Ezra was still clutching the wrapped bundle, and he nodded eagerly.

"Go ahead." Hera gave an encouraging nod when Ezra looked to her before starting in on the string holding the bundle closed.

Kanan leaned against one of the crates, watching as Ezra got the knots untied and unfolded the fabric, which looked to be some kind of clothing, to reveal… "You're giving him blasters?"

"Figured he was getting old enough to learn. They can't go above a low power setting so they might sting a little if he shoots himself, or someone, but they're not going to damage skin. I modified them myself. Pretty much anything with a grip that's going to accommodate Lasat fingers is going to be too big for a kit." Sabine said proudly, then reached down to correct the way Ezra was holding them. "Like this, it's more stable this way."

"Thank you!" Ezra chirped excitedly, correcting his grip and then pointing it out ahead of him.

"Don't aim at anything you don't intend to hit." Hera warned. "They're not toys, even if they look like them."

"Plain grey and black was a little boring, I improved on it." Sabine shrugged, looking pleased. The blasters themselves were bright orange marbled with swirls of blue, certainly not subtle.

"You do realize if we're not careful he's going to go after Chopper with those, right?" Kanan asked, still trying to decide how he felt about it. He was smaller than Ezra when he first started learning lightsaber forms, and with a similarly harmless training weapon. And with a similarly playful approach to it. He wondered if his own instructors ever felt like yanking the training sabers out of the youngling's hands and lecturing them that it was serious and someday their skill at fighting might mean life or death for them, or those under their protection. It was a sobering feeling. It probably didn't help that he was a little jealous Zeb and Sabine had thought of it first.

"It'll even the playing field between them. I know Chopper zaps at him when he thinks I'm not watching." Hera didn't sound worried and Kanan relaxed a little. If Hera wasn't worried about the damage Ezra would be capable with training blasters then he wasn't going to worry.

"The clothes are less exciting, but kits are always hard on clothing. I figured an extra pair wouldn't hurt." Zeb said, shrugging.

Hera laughed softly at that "I'm sure he'll be properly glad to get them when he's not excited over the new blasters. For now why don't we go in and get comfortable? I'm sure there a good bit to get caught up on."

* * *

Kanan bit back a sigh for what felt like the dozenth time as Ezra ran headlong into his leg, latched into his pants and starts tugging, rapidly babbling in half-Basic and half Lasani as he tried to get Kanan's attention.

"Mmhmm." Kanan ruffled his crest of hair, trying not to show that he really didn't have a clue what Ezra was trying to tell him. Whatever it was it seemed to be the right response and Ezra let go, zipping around the table to latch onto Hera's flight suit pants instead, starting to climb up to her lap.

"I'm still not sure that the increased activity in this system is permanent. Two of the planets have highly unstable orbits and for two cycles they're fine but then they move closer to the sun for two cycles and nothing living can survive on them. It would make more sense to move a system over, there's planets there that are far more suitable." Hera winced as sharp claws found their way through the material and pricked at skin, reaching down to haul Ezra up into her lap. He seemed content to be sitting up with everyone else for a moment, then started wiggling, poking at her shoulder plate to see if he could pick some of the paint off with a claw.

"Here, I can take him." Sabine reached out and Hera handed the Lasat kit over gratefully. It only took a moment to settle him in her lap where he could start tracing over the patterns painted onto her armor. "That system is more suitable yes, but that's the problem. There's already a good bit of traffic through there. But if you set up a base here." Sabine indicated one of the smaller planets. "You get stable temperatures, if a little on the cooler side, and you're close enough to manage automated operations. Send living workers in for the night shift and leave it to heat-shielded droids during the day."

"It seems a lot of extra effort just for fairly common mineral collection." Kanan pointed out, as Ezra seemed to get bored with poking at the brightly painted armor and flung himself off her lap and under the table.

Kanan did sigh then, getting up so he could reach under the table and help tug Ezra out. "Why don't you go play with some of your toys? See if you can build something new." That had been one of their better toy ideas. It had started as a box of scrap, broken tools and pipes and all manner of bits and pieces not sharp enough to cut, but magnetize the ends so they would stick and it could be assembled into all manner of configurations. He gave Ezra a little nudge off, relaxing when he scampered off in the general direction of his room. Ezra was generally not too much trouble, but he was being unusually demanding. Maybe he was jealous that the grown-ups were busy. The best thing to do seemed to be to ignore the overly aggressive bids for attention.

"If it was just the common materials then yes, but there were reports of some rarer trace minerals on the planet. Not enough to interest a small scale mining operation, they'd spend more getting them out than they'd get. But bring in a large scale, you'd get the bulk materials and enough of the rarer minerals to make it worth it." Sabine said.

"Do you remember which rarer materials those were?" Hera asked. Sabine shrugged.

"There's a report on it back on the ship. I can look it up." Sabine replied, glancing at Zeb and then arching an eyebrow.

"Might as well get it out of the way now, good a time as any…" Zeb started.

He was interrupted by Ezra coming back in with his stuffed tooka doll and shoving it at Hera. "It's broken!"

Hera frowned at that "Ezra, we're talking right now. We'll fix it later."

"It's broken!" Ezra repeated, louder this time with a little whine.

Hera glanced over the doll and sighed. "It's not broken, the ear's just twisted around. See? Fixed. Now please go play quietly? Just for a little bit?" She fiddled with the ear, getting it flipped around, trying to hand the toy back to him.

Instead Ezra took the toy and burst into tears, startling everyone.

Hera reached down and touched over his hair, petting him awkwardly. "We're not mad. Ezra? You don't need to cry." She looked up at the others, at a loss as Ezra only cried harder.

Sabine pressed her lips together, looking sympathetic. "I was afraid this might happen."

Kanan looked between Sabine and Hera who was awkwardly trying to comfort Ezra. "You knew he might just start crying? He's not usually like this."

"It's his name day, big days like this are fun, but they're hard too." Sabine said, and Zeb nodded in agreement, obviously holding back to keep from getting up to try and help. Too many people crowding around likely wouldn't improve anything.

"Kit's worked himself up too much, just need some time to settle." Zeb spoke, sympathetically as Kanan got up, moving around so he could pick Ezra up. The kit struggled briefly before he went limp, turning his face into Kanan's shirt to muffle his sobs.

"I'll watch him while he cries himself out." Kanan felt a little guilty he hadn't suspected it. He'd seen it enough times when the people partying the loudest and being the most cheerful at the start of the night were the ones ending up sobbing into their drinks later. It had been an awkward scene then too, but the alcohol made an easy excuse to forget about it the next day.

Shutting the door between Ezra's room and the hall at least provided a barrier, closing them both off from the conversation that would no-doubt continue. Kanan stepped over and around the toys left on the floor as he sat down on the bed, holding Ezra on his lap. "That's right, just let it all out."

"I miss…." The words were mumbled against his shirt, thick with crying, but Kanan could still make them out.

"Your parents?" Kanan filled in quietly, and Ezra nodded. Kanan tightened his arms around him in a hug.

"I miss people too. I don't think it ever goes away, not entirely, but it gets easier. There will be good days, and bad days, and that's ok. It'll get better." Kanan spoke softly, not sure if Ezra was even listening, but speaking didn't seem to be hurting anything. After that he went quiet, just letting Ezra cry.

Finally the sobs tapered off and Ezra just lay limp against him. Kanan was fairly certain the kit wasn't sleeping, just too tired to keep crying.

"Do you want to try and go back out, or are you done for the night?" Kanan used the wrist of his sleeve when Ezra looked up, rubbing at the damp fur on his face and trying to dry it and fluff it back up.

Ezra hesitated, biting at his lower lip with one fang before looking at the door.

"Alright, let's go." Kanan helped him off his lap and to the floor, taking his hand when Ezra reached up to him. He knew Zeb and Sabine wouldn't have just left without saying anything.

Kanan was right, he made his way to the sitting area to find them still there. Conversation stilled and he gave a brief wave. "Someone's feeling better now."

"Good." Zeb rumbled. "We wanted to ask before. We took care of handing our jobs off a lot faster than we thought. We can join Hera's crew anytime now, but thought it might not be the best time just yet."

"Logistically they could move in any time." Hera pointed out. "And sooner would be better, we weren't planning to be here long."

"We do have a few things to move over. Tomorrow?" Sabine asked.

"I don't have any objections." Kanan glanced down to the little blue hand in his. "Ezra, what do you think? Are you ready for our little crew to get bigger?"

Ezra looked over Zeb and Sabine "They'll stay?"

"Yeah." Kanan hoped Ezra would approve. If he didn't… they'd likely still be joining but it would be a great deal more awkward all around.

"Ok." Ezra cracked a small smile and Kanan let out the breath he was holding. No second meltdown was an excellent thing.

"The kit has spoken. We'll be getting our stuff moved in tomorrow. Are any of your rooms already reinforced for storing explosives?" Sabine asked cheerfully.

Kanan watched Hera shake her head and resigned himself to weeks of upgrades, rearrangements, and getting used to sharing living space with two more people. Of course that also meant two more people who could watch Ezra, handle some of the chores, and start taking more complicated missions. It would be worth it.

Kanan realized after a moment that Ezra was tugging on his hand. "Patruu?"

"Yeah." Kanan smiled at that, crouching down beside him to ruffle his hair. That was life though, you kept going and you kept changing and he was just very glad that aggravation aside, most of the changes recently had all been for the good, even if they didn't always seem that way at first. He was cautiously optimistic for the future, and at this point he couldn't ask for much more.


	10. Chapter 10

Kanan knew they'd been lucky for a while. Lasat were different enough biologically from humans and nearhumans that they didn't seem prone to catch the same illnesses. Ezra had been in excellent health the whole time so far, even after surviving for so long on the streets of Lothal.

Kanan had known they were overdue for something to go wrong, he just could have wished for better timing. Hera was negotiating a contract with a somewhat eccentric character who refused to allow males of any species to meet him in person. Both Sabine and Hera had gone, taking Chopper with them, leaving him and Zeb with the kid. Then it had seemed like excellent timing. Chopper had voted against any more crew being added and had been exceptionally grumpy about it. He seemed to dislike Sabine less, and some one on one time with just her and Hera might help smooth things out without constantly being reminded that he'd been outvoted when it came to Sabine and Zeb joining.

"Come on, Ezra. I still have a lot I need to do to keep the ship running and Hera's expecting all those upgrades to get done." Kanan kept his voice gentle, trying to unhook Ezra's claws from his shirt. Ezra just whined and clung harder.

"No. Please? Stay." Ezra ducked his head, sniffing pitifully.

Kanan sighed, rubbing over his back. He knew Ezra didn't mean to get sick and he didn't blame him, he just wished the timing wasn't what it was. Apparently Ezra got clingy when he felt bad.

"I can stay a little longer, then I really need to repair that faulty power coupling." Kanan leaned back in the seat, giving up on trying to remove Ezra and letting him go back to clinging to his front like a strange fuzzy burr. It had started that morning. Ezra had slept in for once, which was unusual enough. Then instead of his usual enthusiastic response to breakfast he'd barely picked at his food before declaring that he wasn't hungry.

That was enough for Kanan to seek out the med kit. The fact Ezra didn't even make a token protest at having the thermometer poked down into his ear to get a reading was another red flag, and he wasn't surprised when Ezra was running a fever. He'd done his best to get Ezra to just go back to bed, but the little Lasat was surprisingly stubborn about it. He'd get him settled down and go to take care of something and within the next few minutes he'd have an unhappy snotty Ezra clinging to his leg, sniffling and wanting his attention.

"You ready to lay down and take a little nap yet?" Kanan asked, trying not to sound too hopeful as he grabbed a tissue to mop under Ezra's nose before he could rub it on his shirt or scrub at it with the back of his hand.

Ezra shook his head and buried his face against Kanan's chest. Kanan tried not to let out the annoyed sound he wanted to. It wouldn't have been so bad if Hera was here. He could have tried to get Ezra to cling to her instead, or if Ezra was determined that Kanan was the only one he wanted then he was fairly sure he could have traded all the chores to her and just resigned himself to carrying Ezra around like a momma varactryl covered in babies.

Instead the only other person on the ship was Zeb. He couldn't tell him to do ship maintenance, if something went wrong because he was unfamiliar with it then it would be on Kanan's head. Kanan hadn't even seen much of him the past few days. It wasn't something he'd exactly been bothered by, normally he'd he appreciate that Zeb didn't feel the need to constantly socialize. Now though, he could have used the assistance.

Kanan rubbed his fingers through Ezra's hair, thinking. Even if he couldn't have Zeb do the work on the ship, maybe Ezra would be willing to stay with him. Just an hour or two would be long enough to get a few things taken care of, and to wash his clothes. He tried not to make a face as Ezra sniffled again.

"Want to go pay Zeb a visit?" Kanan tried not to sigh with relief when Ezra eventually nodded. He shifted to stand up carefully, holding Ezra as he clung.

"Maybe he'll have a few ideas for how to make you feel a little better."Kanan said hopefully. Most of what he remembered about being sick as a kid was getting checked out by a medical droid to confirm illness and injury, and other than the crèche master coming by to dispense medicine or check in on you, you were left alone for the bulk of the time and told to rest. And that was only if you were too sick to focus on lessons at all, just being a little ill meant you were just separated from the other students so you didn't distract or infect them while you studied.

It wasn't like Ezra had any lessons to miss yet, there weren't any medical droids, and Kanan didn't feel comfortable giving him any medications. None of his memories were exactly helpful there.

Kanan shifted his grip a little on Ezra, holding him with one arm while he knocked on Zeb's door. There was no answer after a few long moments and he knocked again, louder.

"Zeb? You in there?" Kanan waited. It was possible Zeb was asleep, though it wasn't that close to when they both slept through the afternoon.

After a few more long moments he could hear movement though, and finally the door opened.

"Yeah. What? Not really in the mood for company." Zeb's voice was gruff as he leaned in the doorway and Kanan frowned.

"Ezra's sick. Can you watch him for an hour?" Kanan asked.

"The kit's sick?" Zeb instantly perked up at that, and then looked guilty. "Karabast. Yeah, I'll watch him." He reached to stroke a clawed fingertip over Ezra's hair.

Ezra turned his head slightly at the touch and then sneezed wetly. Kanan sighed, and started rummaging in a pocket for a clean tissue.

"Here." Zeb thrust a handful of unused tissues at Kanan and he took one gratefully to wipe at the mess on Ezra's face and his shirt.

"Thanks." Kanan got Ezra's face about as clean as it was going to get before he thought of something, looking up to study Zeb more closely. He looked tired, ears drooping and his stance more hunched over than usual, his stance low enough that his heels nearly brushed the floor. That plus the tissues on hand…

"You're sick too, aren't you?" Kanan asked, as Zeb sat down heavily on his bunk.

"Yeah. Started feeling like crap right before Sabine and the Captain left. Was hoping the kit wouldn't catch it, but at least I think I'm through the worst of it." Zeb reached up for Ezra and it only took a little coaxing to get him to unhook his claws from Kanan's shirt so he could be handed over.

"You sure you're up to watching him? I can try to be quick." Kanan felt a little guilty. He hadn't even considered that Zeb might be avoiding leaving his room because he was ill. Hera would have paid more attention to what was going on in her ship.

"I'm sure. Just bring him some juice or something later so I don't have to haul him to the galley." Zeb said as Ezra sunk his claws into his jumpsuit, obviously willing to cling onto him for a while.

"I will. Good luck with him." Kanan gave Ezra a final pat before heading out.

* * *

Zeb stroked a hand over Ezra's back, letting the kit wiggle and squirm as he tried to find a comfortable position tucked up against his side. He hadn't really stopped wiggling since he'd been dropped off, sagging in place for maybe a minute before starting to move and resettle himself. Ezra snuffled wetly and Zeb tried not to make a face as he grabbed a tissue to hand over before Ezra could wipe his face against his side.

"We make quite a pair, huh kit?" Zeb patted his back as Ezra blew his nose, making a sad little unhappy sound after trying to clear his clogged up sinuses.

" _My head hurts._ " Ezra sniffed again, wincing. " _Lots hurts, but my head hurts most._ "

" _Here?_ " Zeb touched carefully on Ezra's forehead. " _Or all over?_ " There wasn't much to do if his sinuses were irritated, but if it was just a headache an ice pack might help. It was easy to slip back into Lasani with him, and probably easier for Ezra to understand.

Ezra scrunched up his face, but didn't wince at the touch. " _All over_ "

" _Then when Kanan gets back we'll do something about it._ " Zeb went back to slowly petting over him, trying to get Ezra to relax. For a minute it seemed like it had worked, the kit was limp against his side and looked to be starting to close his eyes. Then Ezra let out a soft whine and stretched out, squirming, flexing his toes into a fist then spreading them wide like he was trying to crack them.

Zeb could sympathize. Before his own fever broke his joints had ached horribly. Moving wasn't comfortable, but trying to stay still with nothing to distract from the discomfort was worse and there was always the false promise that this time moving or cracking the joint would ease the ache.

There was no real way of knowing if any of the medicines on board would help. Zeb had never been a chemist, back on Lasan he could have easily selected a medicine designed to ease fever and aches in a kit Ezra's age and known that even if he did have a problem with it there were medical experts who could step in. He wasn't even entirely sure what chemicals would have been in those medicines, much less know enough to figure out what they were called in Basic. If it was an emergency he would be willing to risk it, but Ezra wasn't in any danger. He was just uncomfortable and unhappy, and it would get better soon. He was sure if he asked, though, Ezra would insist it wasn't soon enough.

Zeb's ear twitched at the beep the door made as it slid open.

"Hey, brought you guys a few things." Kanan spoke with only a little forced cheerfulness as he made his way to the bunk.

Zeb felt Ezra's flinch and rubbed the back of his neck. "Little quieter? Kit's got a headache."

Kanan looked instantly guilty at that, dropping his voice down. "Sorry." He placed the bowl down where Ezra could easily reach it to poke at the ice. "You haven't really wanted to drink anything, but I know you like playing with ice cubes. I got you some water ones, and a few juice ones."

"With his nose all stopped up, drinking can feel like you're going to choke." Zeb offered.

Kanan nodded thoughtfully at that, holding out a large mug to Zeb. "I didn't know if you needed anything, but I figured tea wouldn't hurt."

Zeb took it gratefully. He was past the worst of it, but he still felt like he just finished a few dozen long spars where he'd taken a few too many bo-rifle hits. The thought of getting up to get anything for himself was an exhausting one, but he'd resigned himself to doing everything until Sabine came back. She'd handled him injured or sick in the past without getting frustrated at him.

"I can bring Ezra an ice pack for his head. It might help with his fever too." Kanan gently rubbed over Ezra's hair, as the kit nudged into the touch before stuffing one of the ice cubes into his mouth to chew on.

"Good idea." Zeb took a long sip of the tea, appreciating how the heat helped soothe some of the lingering soreness in his throat.

"I'll be right back with that then, anything else?" Kanan headed back towards the door.

"A light blanket if he's got a clean one. I spent most of the first day too hot, but later I started getting chills. If his goes the same way he'll want to wrap up in something." Zeb wracked his brain for anything else. "I think that's it. Maybe tomorrow he'll start getting bored and want something he can play with, but right now I'd bet he's not going to want to let go."

Kanan vanished out the door, only taking a couple minutes to fetch the ice pack. It was long enough for Ezra to go into another sneezing fit and Zeb just patiently held the tissues until Ezra finally stopped. Ezra scrunched his face, hiding it against Zeb's side with an unhappy whimper.

"I heard that from out in the hall, doubt that did his sore head any favors." Kanan spoke quietly but sympathetically as he returned with the ice pack, positioning it carefully on Ezra's head.

"Probably not." Zeb tossed the wet tissues in the general direction of the bin.

"Guessing from the way you said that about him clinging, this sort of behavior's normal?" Kanan asked.

Zeb chuckled softly, then tried not to wince when it turned into a dry cough. "Yeah. For the first cycle or so, kittens are really clingy. It was hit or miss on if you can even get them to sleep alone, though it's easier if there's multiples. New parents used to complain about it a lot." The last part came out more wistful than he intended, and he cleared his throat. "After that they slowly get more independent, learn to walk instead of just climbing. But if they're sick or hurt they go right back to the instincts to cling to whoever's closest. I'd be more worried if he wasn't acting like this."

" _Talking about me._ " Ezra said, sounding grumpy even with his words half muffled against Zeb's side.

" _That's what happens when you're too sick to think in Basic and join the conversation._ " Zeb teased him gently, before translating for Kanan's benefit.

Kanan smiled at that, giving Ezra's shoulder a gentle pat before he stood up to head to the door. "You can go back to talking. I still have more work to do."

"Go on, I'll make sure the kit is taken care of." Zeb rubbed over one too-hot ear, and then frowned at the way Ezra had his face pressed against his jumpsuit. "Are you rubbing snot on my clothes? Stop that. Eat another ice cube." He grabbed a tissue to try and get him cleaned up before he pulled the bowl closer, waiting until Ezra took one of the juice cubes.

It was going to be a very long afternoon, but Zeb would have been lying if he tried to say he didn't get a little bit of a warm feeling that Ezra was willing to tuck up against his side so trustingly. It was probably mainly because of how bad Ezra felt that he was willing to accept this kind of comfort from him, but he'd take it. Zeb didn't blame the kit at all, as far as he was concerned Zeb was still a near-stranger no matter their shared species. Still, no matter how normal it was that Ezra was taking his time to warm up to him it didn't stop him from feeling some sort of pang when Ezra turned to Kanan or Hera first for something he needed. Maybe in time that would start changing, Zeb certainly hoped so.

* * *

Kanan woke up for what felt like the tenth or eleventh time since he'd managed to fall asleep. Ezra was wrapped up tight in his blanket and tucked up against his chest. Ezra hadn't wanted to fall asleep with Zeb, and as annoying as it was to keep getting woken up, he was privately relieved that it was so easy to keep an eye on him. Ezra was coughing again, his small body shaking with each one and Kanan sleepily rubbed over his back.

"Here, drink a little." Kanan reached for the cup of water he had close, fumbling with the bowl on the nightstand before he found the right cup, sitting up so he could hold it up for Ezra. Ezra whined, but took a long sip, wincing when he swallowed.

"I know." Kanan said sympathetically, sighing and glancing at the time. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or annoyed that it was progressing exactly the same for Ezra as Zeb had described. Zeb said he'd spent most of the second day trying not to cough his lungs out and dealing with a sore throat on top of everything. Kanan had hoped it might go easier on Ezra, but it didn't look like that was going to happen. He'd already spent half the night trying to soothe Ezra back to sleep when he shivered and shook from chills, or seemed determined to figure out some way to kick all the blankets off and get as far away from Kanan's body heat as he could and still keep his claws firmly hooked in his shirt. The bowl of water was for those feverish spells, soaking the fur on his forehead and cheeks seemed to help cool him down a little, and it had enough blue fur floating in it that he didn't want to confuse that water for the drinking water he had. Drinking liquid may not have been Ezra's first choice, but the ice cubes in it had long melted away and the water seemed to help when the coughing started.

Ezra made a quiet unhappy sound and Kanan set the water aside, rubbing over his back. "Just relax and breathe, and go back to sleep." And then he could get a little more sleep too before he needed to get up and sort through reports for potential jobs.

Ezra fidgeted, bunching up his shirt under his claws a little tighter before he mumbled something. It was in Lasani, but Kanan had heard it often enough to not need a translation.

"Then go, 'fresher is right there." Kanan sighed as Ezra ducked his head, ears flat. "I promise, I'll be right here, you can get right back in bed with me."

When Ezra continued to hesitate, Kanan heaved a sigh and started getting out of the bunk. "Fine, I'll carry you to the door, and then you're going back to sleep." He shuffled tiredly, sure that even if Ezra fell back to sleep and slept soundly the rest of the night he'd be hitting the caf hard that day. Kanan was certain he had to be getting old far before his time if one night of interrupted sleep was this rough.

* * *

"Ready to keep him for a few hours?" Kanan peered into Zeb's open door, getting waved inside.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Zeb put his bo-rifle aside and reached for Ezra. "How's he doing?"

Ezra was a little more determined to cling this time, trying to keep his grip on Kanan's shirt even as the effort made him cough, a harsh series of barks that shook his whole body.

"His fever finally broke this morning, but you can hear what replaced it." Kanan carefully unhooked his claws one by one. Ezra seemed to have figured out that he was going to be left with Zeb all day again and he wanted to stay with Kanan. Finally Kanan got him unhooked, passing him over.

Zeb took him, holding him against his chest and rubbing his back as Ezra just kept coughing.

"I don't really know what we can give him for it, I don't really want to experiment with the cough medicine we have but…" Kanan sighed.

Zeb kept up the rubbing until Ezra's breathing finally evened out and he could drop him down to sit in his lap. "Could try alcohol, that helps with the cough."

Kanan looked skeptical at that. "I don't know that much about kids, but I think they're banned from bars for a reason. "

Zeb shrugged "It's the only thing I can think of that might help. It's not like we'd be getting him drunk for fun."

Ezra tried to say something, and it turned into a wheeze and his whole body tensing as he tried not to cough. He failed, and Zeb went back to rubbing over his back and trying to give him what comfort he could.

"Let's try it. Maybe it'll help him sleep. Between the fever and the coughing poor guy hasn't had much rest." Kanan rubbed over his face with a sigh.

"I've got something here, if you'll get something hot like tea to mix it with." Zeb suggested, shifting so he could get a bottle out of one of the storage drawers.

"Right, good idea." Kanan left to start the tea, leaving Zeb to finish comforting Ezra through the end of the coughing fit.

"Bet you're hacking your throat raw, huh kit?" Zeb waited for the tired unhappy nod. "Another good reason for the tea, so this won't burn as much. But it'll help ease the tight feeling in your chest."

"One mug of hot tea, I used the tart one that's supposed to be good for sore throats." Kanan carried the mug in carefully, passing it to Zeb so he could liberally dose it with the booze he had.

"Alright kit, little sips and don't burn your tongue." Zeb held the mug for him while Ezra tried to give it a suspicious stuffy sounding sniff before he took a cautious sip.

"Looks like you've got things under control. Need anything else?" Kanan gave Ezra's hair a ruffle and started to edge towards the door to make his escape before Ezra could get a claw hooked into any of his clothing in a bid to stay with him.

"Could you check the crated supplies for some kind of tinned soup? Checked the galley earlier and there wasn't anything, but soup's going to be the easiest thing for him right now." Zeb didn't add that at the time he'd been looking for something for himself and the thought of going down to the hanger to open up the food storage crates and look had been far too much effort. He'd ended up just eating what he could and going right back to bed.

"Yeah, not a problem. I did inventory pretty recently and I'm sure we've got something." Kanan reassured him before he ducked out of the room.

"Get that cough under control, get some food in you, you'll be feeling better before you know it." Zeb rubbed over Ezra's back, taking the mug away when it looked like he'd finished with it for the moment. He wracked his brain, trying to think of anything else you were supposed to do when a kit was sick. "Want a story?"

Ezra perked his ears up at that. "A story? _What kind of story?_ " He was barely whispering, but Zeb didn't have any trouble making out the words.

" _An old story. Have you heard about the two princesses of Lira San?_ " Zeb might have been able to translate the story to Basic if someone else wanted to hear it, but it was easy to slip back into Lasani.

Ezra shook his head and Zeb started the story. It took a little remembering to get the phrasing right sometimes, but the story was the sort of thing he'd heard so many times as a kit himself that the story itself came easily. He told him how once, long ago Lasat lived in a place called Lira San, and one day the Queen gave birth to twin princesses. As was the custom, the royal Wise Woman was summoned to determine which of the princesses would become queen, and which the Ashla had other plans for. The Wise Woman arrived and instead of picking one princess over the other, she said that both were destined to rule. This caused a great deal of concern, as both couldn't be Queen, but the Wise Woman would not be swayed and both princesses were to be raised as if they were to rule.

" _Both were born white as sand, but as they grew their colors came in. The first had flame colors and she was Luc. The second had points of sky and shadow…_ " Zeb recited, remembering clearly the illustrations that had come with the words.

"Tene." Ezra said, then coughed. A little less hardy than before and it was only followed by a couple more instead of the long fit. Zeb still passed him the spiked tea, waiting until he'd taken a sip.

 _"Little liar. You said you didn't know this story._ " Zeb smiled, setting the mug back down for him. It seemed to be helping, or at least it certainly wasn't hurting.

" _I want to hear it._ " Ezra pouted.

" _I guess maybe I can still tell it, even if you lied._ " Zeb chucked and kept going, how Luc was a studious and dedicated princess, but Tene had more of a wild streak to her. She learned her royal duties, but she also studied at the Temple even though she never became a Wise Woman, and she trained with the soldiers even though she never became one of the Royal Guard. Ezra held on to every word as Zeb told how the day was fast coming that one of the princesses would need to take the throne, and there was still no deciding as to which was more suited.

" _And then Tene had a dream,_ " Ezra murmured, interrupting.

" _I was just getting to that, don't rush me._ " Zeb bopped him lightly on the head with a knuckle, making Ezra grin. " _Tene dreamed and when she woke she went to her sister and told her that she would never rule Lira San, her place was in the stars. Luc grieved to lose her sister, but could not deny her. The call went out for all the bravest and boldest to crew a great ship and Tene left Lira San. It was a long journey, with many adventures, but eventually they found a new land. Tene named it Lasan, sister to Lira San, and there the children of Tene lived._ " Zeb found his voice getting thick on the last bit, clearing his throat and covering it with a cough.

" _Knowing that the light of Lira San was always waiting to welcome them home._ " Ezra finished, the same way Zeb had always heard the story ended.

" _That's right._ " Zeb rubbed slowly over his back, pushing down the thoughts and emotions that came with the memories. It was hard, most of the time it was easier just not to think on the past at all, good or bad.

"Zeb?" Ezra made a soft questioning sound after his name and Zeb realized with a start he'd been quiet a lot longer than he intended, lost in thought.

"Sorry, kit." Zeb was saved from having to try and come up with an explanation or deflection by Kanan's tap at the door.

"I've got food for you both." Kanan carefully balanced bowls as he stepped in, handing the larger of the two to Zeb first.

"Thanks." Zeb picked up the spoon, taking a careful bite and glad when it wasn't too hot. The soup was mostly salty meaty broth with mushy vegetables, obviously from a tin but flavorful and easy to eat. It shouldn't bother Ezra's throat too much.

Kanan held the second bowl out for Ezra, waiting for him to take it. After a moment Ezra loosened his grip with one hand, unhooking his claws from Zeb's jumpsuit to take it and pull it close.

"You need to do more than just hold it. You barely ate anything yesterday." Kanan stroked over the top of Ezra's head.

"You can let go, I'm not going anywhere." Zeb tried to reassure him, setting his own bowl aside so he could rub over Ezra's side. Ezra just flattened his ears back.

"You're going to eat something." Kanan crouched down so he was on level with Ezra, getting the spoon from the bowl and holding it up to his mouth. Ezra opened his mouth willingly for the food.

"That seems to be working." Zeb chuckled softly as he picked his bowl back up.

"No, no way. He can feed himself just fine. Half the time he tries to feed himself stuff he shouldn't." Kanan tried to get Ezra to take the spoon.

"Yeah, but he's sick. If you don't want to feed him just let me finish and I'll do it." Zeb shrugged slightly as he kept eating.

"I can do it." Kanan scooped up another spoonful of the soup, slowly starting to feed Ezra.

"Sorry." Ezra spoke up after a few more bites, glancing down.

"Why are you sorry?" Kanan put the spoon down, reaching to rub over Ezra's upper arm.

"You don't want to." Ezra sounded stuffed up still, his voice still hoarse from coughing before.

"Don't want to what? Feed you like this? You like feeding yourself, and it's less messy." Kanan smiled some, trying to reassure him. Ezra made a soft frustrated sound, switching to Lasani when he couldn't find the words.

"Kit says all of it, having to take care of him like this. He knows you don't want to." Zeb translated quietly.

"No, Ezra…" Kanan set the bowl to the side so he could reach out and pull Ezra closer, hugging him to his chest. "I'm just frustrated because there's not much I can do to make you feel any better, and the ship still needs working on. But I'm not mad at you. If Hera and Chopper were here and could handle the ship we'd be hanging out and watching the holonet all day."

Ezra clung to his shirt, pressing his face against his chest, his voice muffled.

"Of course he means it." Zeb answered rather than bothering to translate. "You're both just tired."

Ezra started to say something else and then tensed as he coughed harshly. Kanan rubbed over his back, trying to be soothing.

"That sounds a little better at least. Look, I'm not leaving you here because I don't want you around. I'm leaving you here because I want to be sure that you're taken care of and not alone while I do what I have to. Besides, it's not fair to keep you all to myself, Zeb here wants to spend time with you too." Kanan waiting until Ezra's coughing eased up to pull back just a little so Ezra could see his face as he talked.

"That's right," Zeb reached to stroke his claws through Ezra's hair, combing it. "So quit acting like it's some kind of chore." He kept his tone light and teasing, getting a small smile from Ezra.

"I guess it does sort of feel like we've been passing you back and forth since you got sick. Maybe tonight we can all watch holos or something." Kanan glanced up to get confirmation from Zeb, getting a nod at the suggestion. "How's that sound, Ezra?"

"Good." Ezra's voice was still just as quiet and hoarse, but he looked a great deal happier as Kanan gave him another hug and then went to pass him back to Zeb. Ezra went willingly, not trying to take half of Kanan's shirt with him even if he did grab right back onto Zeb's jumpsuit as soon as he was settled.

Kanan picked up the bowl, getting another spoonful of soup. "And you're still not getting out of eating something."

* * *

Kanan made sure he had everything they might need before he slid into the side of the booth seat beside Zeb. Tissues, more hot tea spiked to help ease Ezra's cough, one of his favorite blankets for if he wanted to bundle up. As soon as he was in place he could feel Ezra shift, wiggling to cram in between both of them.

"Comfortable like that? Sure you're not being squished?" Kanan asked, just getting a content sounding chirrup in response.

"I wanted to ask, is that part of your language, or…" Kanan asked, hoping Zeb didn't mind the questions.

"Huh…" Zeb blinked slowly. "Never thought about it, but kind of? Kits make a lot of sounds to express basic feelings instead of bothering to put it into words. It's easy to figure out. Most stop doing it so much as they get older, it tones down to about the same amount humans do, I think." Zeb shrugged slightly.

"Wasn't sure. We've kind of just been winging it on a lot of things." Kanan admitted. He didn't want to go right out and say that he worried sometimes that he'd done something to mess Ezra up. Ezra would understand that in a flash and then he'd have to try and explain that he didn't think he was messed up, except yeah he did worry sometimes he was screwing up but that wasn't something Ezra should worry about. That would go over amazingly, he was sure. Kanan turned on the holo, so the sound and flickering lights would distract the kid.

"Yeah. Well, you're hardly much more than a kit yourself, eh? Doubt you planned on ending up with one this early." Zeb said easily, and Kanan bristled a little.

"I'm not that young," Kanan protested. "I mean, ok it's a little unlikely that…" He trailed off as Zeb chuckled. "Just watch the holo."

Zeb reached for the tea when Ezra coughed, the small mug nearly engulfed in his hand as he held it for him to take. Kanan was slowly relaxing, taking the teasing for the tentative attempts at friendship it probably was.

Kanan wasn't surprised when about halfway through the first holo Ezra had slumped between them and had his mouth open, breathing in little wheezy snores with his nose still stuffed. It was early for his bedtime, but even though Zeb said he'd gotten in a decent nap that afternoon it wasn't surprising. Kanan waited to be sure he was deep enough asleep not to wake at being picked up before he started moving to scoop him up in his arms.

"Looks like bedtime's coming early." Kanan spoke softly, knowing once Ezra was deeply asleep the hyperdrive could probably explode and he wouldn't even twitch. Ezra hooked his claws into Kanan's shirt, grasping automatically, but didn't stir.

"Looks like it. Thanks for letting me watch him during the day. If he's feeling better he might not need someone with him tomorrow, but… yeah." Zeb turned off the holo so he could stand, stretching slowly.

"You don't need to thank me for that. I want you two to spend time together. The more people he has keeping him out of trouble once he's back to normal the better. Did you know we've had to refit the air vent covers three times now? He keeps figuring out the old locks and then he's got all sorts of new tunnels to play hide and find in." Kanan smiled when Zeb chuckled at that.

"Just don't think I'm going to be crawling in there after him." Zeb warned

"I don't know, trying to get you unstuck from vents about half as wide as your shoulders seems like a fun afternoon. Right up there with fixing plumbing problems or cleaning scorch marks off the hull." Kanan said lightly. Or installing a fire-suppression system that could handle the kind of explosives Sabine wanted to store, which was next on his list of things to do.

"Go get some sleep." Zeb waved towards the door and Kanan smiled, carrying Ezra out and towards his room. The Lasat kit had stayed utterly oblivious to the quiet conversation, limp and snoring in his arms.

* * *

Kanan tightened the last bolt in place for the pipe to carry the extinguishing foam. They'd do a test with water-based foam to be sure everything worked properly, but the bulk of the work was done and he stepped back, stretching and bending to crack his back and loosen muscles stiff from holding awkward positions. He heard a muffled cough and turned to look for Ezra.

The Lasat kit was still a little clingier than normal and obviously still in the process of recovering. He had reached the same stage Zeb was when Kanan had first realized something was wrong; a little stuffed up and the occasional cough but mostly just tired. The most obvious good sign was that while he still wanted to be in the same room with either Kanan or Zeb, he no longer seemed anxious if he wasn't in physical contact with them. Just knowing he was able to go over and cling if he wanted to seemed to be enough.

"What have you got?" Kanan asked, not surprised to see Ezra carrying his drawing board. The smooth surface allowed for the markers to be wiped off easily with a cloth, or just with fuzzy Lasat hands. If it was a picture Ezra wanted to save, a holo could be taken easily enough. Ezra cling to his leg, showing him the picture. Kanan generally had no idea what Ezra was trying to draw, but it didn't hurt anything to praise him.

"Very nice, want me to take a holo of it so you can save it?" Kanan reached down to just pick Ezra up, drawing board an all. His back protested a little, but even if Ezra had walked there just fine he looked so tired like this. Kanan would have tried to convince him to take a nap, but right now Ezra seemed more tired than sleepy.

"Uh huh." Ezra smiled, content to be carried up to the cockpit. They'd done it enough times that all Kanan had to do was set him down in the chair and he held the board up to be scanned. They'd barely gotten finished with it when the console chimed to let them know there was an incoming transmission.

Kanan checked it "It's from the Phantom, hopefully good news," He hit the button to accept the transmission, the projection flickering to life and the blue light image of Hera forming.

"Phantom to Ghost." Hera's voice came over the speakers.

"Ghost here." Kanan replied.

"We're ready for a pickup, sending exact coordinates now." Hera sent them and cut the transmission. Kanan arched an eyebrow at Ezra.

"Well that could mean a lot of things. All we know for sure is nothing went too wrong and they're not coming in hot." Kanan settled down into the pilot's chair as Ezra made a questioning sound.

"If something went seriously wrong she'd give us a heads up about it, but a short transmission like that doesn't share many details and is harder to notice and track. So could be because of that, or could just be she didn't feel like making a longer one. We'll figure it out when we get there. You can be my copilot as long as you don't touch anything." Kanan calculated the jump, heading towards the rendezvous point.

* * *

The Phantom docked easily with the Ghost and both Kanan and Zeb were waiting by the ladder. Ezra had decided for the moment that Zeb made the taller sturdier perch to hang onto.

Hera came down the ladder first, landing lightly on the flooring.

"How did it go?" Kanan asked.

"We got the maps we needed." Hera said, sounding tired but satisfied, moving out of the way for Sabine to maneuver her way down the ladder, moving lightly even in all the armor. Chopper would take longer, it was quicker to get into his spot on top of the Phantom from the outside, but there was a mechanism for getting back inside. It just took more time.

"Oh we got them alright," Sabine grinned, flashing teeth. "It was great. Days of letting this kung string us along and go fetch this, go do this small favor, have dinner with me and maybe I'll negotiate for the maps you need and I was starting to worry we'd need to open with some more creative diplomatic solutions," Sabine patted one of her pouches, Kanan wasn't sure if she was referring to explosives or worse, but he got the idea.

"I didn't want to risk alienating a potential ally." Hera protested, but she was starting to smile.

"And then after the third dinner invitation 'maybe we can do business or maybe something else' she just heads to the Phantom. I ask if we were giving up on the maps…" Sabine glanced to Hera.

"And I told Sabine that Chopper had made copies of all the maps the first night we were there. Everything after that was just testing him. At that point it was clear he wouldn't be of any further use, so no reason to offer to pay for maps we'd already stolen." Hera finished, but she did look pleased with herself.

"And now we have a comprehensive map of every fuel station that isn't under Imperial control, from backwater pit stops to smuggler fuel caches that are willing to make a deal to the larger fuel depots that haven't currently accepted any of the Imperial regulations as to ship registration and approval out of fear of hurting business." Sabine looked pleased at that.

"How did things go on your end? Did you get all the repairs and work done on the ship?" Hera asked. "If you did, Sabine owes me forty credits."

Kanan glanced at where Zeb was holding Ezra. "Uh, well, about that…" He rubbed the back of his head.

Sabine laughed, elbowing Hera gently. "Looks like you owe me ten then."

"It wasn't exactly his fault," Zeb spoke up in his defense. "Ezra got sick."

"They both did." Kanan waved a hand to indicate both Lasat. "I got the repairs done and started on the explosives storage, but I figured it was more important to make sure they were taken care of."

"How sick?" Hera sounded concerned, stepping closer to Zeb to hold her arms out to take Ezra. Zeb handed him over.

"Sick enough to be floored for a couple days, not sick enough to be in any real danger. He's doing better now, but he's still coughing some." Zeb explained as Hera checked Ezra over.

Sabine stepped closer to gently punch Zeb's shoulder "Guess we have to declare the bet null then, we didn't factor in sick Lasat." Zeb chuckled, reaching to ruffle her hair.

"We planned on it just to inconvenience you." Zeb teased.

"I'd have contacted you if it was an emergency," Kanan assured Hera. "As it was, you just missed out on a couple days of little kid snot all over everything." That made Ezra giggle, ending in a cough.

"I am not sure which would have been worse, at least he'd only be slimy unintentionally." Hera made a face, but rubbed over Ezra's back, obviously not too bothered at being coughed on.

"Now that all that's out of the way, I vote lunch and no more business talk until we're done eating." Sabine spoke up.

"I'll agree to that. After you, Captain," Kanan let Hera take the lead, dropping back beside Zeb as Chopper finally used his jets to make his way into the Ghost proper, letting out an indignant squawk that everyone was already leaving.

Kanan just laughed at that, glad things were finally starting to settle into a new normal.


	11. Chapter 11

Having two more people around did make keeping Ezra entertained that much easier, Hera reflected. Even if it meant slightly more chaos. The secondary cargo hold had been turned into a training yard, with crates for cover and round training droids hovering and bumbling their way around the area like fat lazy insects. When hit with a low powered blast they let out a beep and floated to the ground, 'stunned' for several minutes. Not that there were a great number of hits yet, but the challenge and rare reward seemed more than enough to keep Ezra at the game for hours, long past the point shooting at a stationary target would have become boring.

One of the target droids managed to float directly into the path of one of the bolts and let out a beep, which was nearly drowned out by the whoop of triumph that followed it. This far away Hera couldn't make out whatever encouraging words Sabine said in response, but she could hear the tone of it and see the way Ezra preened under the praise.

Hera barely glanced to the side as Zeb joined her, leaning lightly on the railing to look down at the cargo hold. It looked like Ezra was getting a lecture on how to move between cover as they both darted from one cluster of crates to the next. The target droids couldn't do any kind of return fire at this level, but they could pretend they could. Ezra took aim at another one over the crate, firing at it. The first few shots went wild, but the last hit it dead on.

"Kit's getting better at that." Zeb spoke up quietly. Hera nodded.

"He is, I wish I knew where he got the energy though." Hera said, keeping her tone light.

Zeb chuckled "One of the great mysteries." They watched together in silence a little longer before he spoke again. "How well did you know his parents?"

"I never met them in person," Hera admitted. "A lot of personal details were kept quiet for everyone's protection. I learned more about them from the holos they left behind."

"You were able to recover personal holos?" Zeb twitched an ear her direction, as Hera nodded.

"Would you want to see them?" Hera asked. She had thought about offering before, but it was a sensitive subject. She hadn't even looked at them beyond finding out what they contained, it seemed almost violating to go looking through them without permission. Once Ezra was older it would be a different story, he could tell them if it bothered him to have others looking back over the recordings and stills. It seemed just as wrong not to offer Zeb the chance to look through them though.

"I… yes. I would." Zeb spoke softly.

"When?" Hera asked, and Zeb looked thoughtful.

"Not now, tonight, after the kit's gone to sleep." Zeb spoke up, finally, turning to watch the cargo hold again. The training session seemed to be winding down, Ezra finally starting to get tired.

Sure enough the next hit that Ezra made Sabine pressed the remote for the droids, sending them back to their charging stations while she patted Ezra on the back.

Hera stepped back from the railing, feeling a small pang at how quickly Ezra seemed to be taking to Sabine as a teacher. She'd tried a few times to give him piloting lessons and they both quickly grew bored and frustrated. Sabine didn't seem to have the same problem, maybe the lessons were just simpler? Point and shoot was a far cry from memorizing engine output readings, after all. It still didn't hurt to make a mental note to ask Sabine about it later. For the moment there were still dozens of things that always needed doing around the ship, speculation on teaching styles could wait.

* * *

"Here's everything we recovered from their house." Hera slid in the first data disk, mostly still images. There wasn't anything important to the Rebellion in there, it appeared to be entirely the sort of holos a family would take to record sentimental events.

Hera wasn't expecting Zeb's obvious surprise as he brought up one of the first holos.

"That's… Mira?" Zeb furrowed his brow, tracing the trim on the white and blue Lasat's outfit with one claw.

"Mira and Ephram were the names they gave me, you knew them?" Hera questioned him.

Zeb shook his head slightly. "Knew of her, just because it was such a stir. She was a young, well respected wise-woman who suddenly announced she was leaving Lasan with her husband. Said she'd had a vision and she was packing up and leaving. It was very sudden, but the clothes… no Lasat would dare wear a wise-woman's outfit unearned, even living off Lasan."

"A vision? Did that happen a lot?" Hera hadn't expected to hear that detail.

"Eh, often enough." Zeb still sounded a little shaken, but he was getting himself back under control. "Not the sort of thing you wanted to rely on over your own common sense. Most of the time people who went to ask advice just got told to trust their instincts anyway. I always half wondered if she just wanted a change of scenery and knew if she said it was a vision no one could question her."

"Could be. I've seen some fairly odd things in my life though." Hera kept her tone neutral.

Zeb snorted softly "Seems like visions should be more useful than helping you pick your vacation spot, and we know how well that turned out." He looked over the picture again, squinting. "Did you find anything odd at the house?"

"Odd how?" Hera asked, then shook her head when she realized it likely didn't matter. "The only things we took with us were data disks and Ezra, and the clothes on his back."

"She would have taken things with her, important things. If they're in Imperial hands now…" Zeb clenched his hand into a fist.

"They might still be there. The house was boarded up and left empty." Hera pointed out.

"Or they could have been on her when she was arrested." Zeb shook his head slightly.

"It's not that risky to go back. Lothal has a large Imperial presence because of the academy and supply depots, but just breaking into one abandoned house shouldn't attract any attention. If they're that important we should at least try." Hera stood up. "Probably the sooner the better. I'll tell the others about our detour."

"I…" Zeb hesitated, then twitched his ears. "Thank you."

* * *

"This way. If it's still there we'll be there soon." Hera spoke quietly as she made her way down the streets of Lothal, following a route she hadn't expected to ever revisit. If anything had changed in the time since they had last been there, it was impossible to tell under the dim light from mostly waned moons.

Zeb grunted softly in acknowledgement, following after her nearly silently for all his bulk. If Hera wasn't more than familiar with how quietly Ezra could move when he was being sneaky she might have been surprised.

The house didn't look to have been disturbed, still boarded up and quiet. There was no sign anyone else had even broken in, though Hera was still cautious as she picked the lock. In some ways she had expected it, but in some it was profoundly wrong. Before Ezra might have been enough of a deterrent to keep it from being disturbed, but generally greed was a far better motivator than fear, even fear of the Empire.

Hera got the lock and slipped inside, Zeb following behind and shutting the door without needing to be asked. Once the door was closed she turned the glow rod up to survey the room. It looked eerily like it had when the left it, not even any dust to mark the passage of time.

"Looks like the kit was living here for a while." Zeb looked around, taking in the clutter.

"Yes." Hera said simply, not sure what else to add.

"He's a survivor, that's for sure." Zeb paced the length of the main room, and then unslung his bo-rifle.

Hera started to ask, then bit her lip as he extended the length of it, lighting up one end. It crackled like purple lightning as he slowly swept it up and down along the walls.

"There were ways to create hidden compartments that would only respond to certain power signatures. Can't know for sure they would have done it, but…" Zeb spoke up as he kept slowly scanning the wall

"But it's worth checking for." Hera watched, fascinated, keeping half an eye on the door. She nearly missed the moment the power went from crackling around the end of the bo-rifle and leapt like lightning to a lightning rod, striking one point on the wall, flickering, and then holding steady.

Zeb didn't hesitate, striking the end of his bo-rifle firmly against that point of the wall. The outer material cracked and then fell away from the smooth panel under it. Zeb hooked his claws into the crack of the panel, tugging it open.

The first thing Hera saw when she came closer was what looked like a wooden walking stick. Not very impressive, even if she recognized it from some of the holos of Ezra's mother. Zeb lifted it out reverently, setting it aside to pick up a small bag, checking inside before closing the drawstring back tight.

"Good, these are the most important things I was worried about. It looks like there are more data disks in here as well." Zeb gathered them up, handing them over to Hera, though he kept the stick and bag.

"Then I'm very glad we came back." Hera put the data disks away to check back on the Ghost.

Zeb did the same to the other walls, but he didn't seem terribly surprised when he didn't uncover any more hidden compartments.

They closed the Bridger house back up, leaving it as undisturbed looking as possible. Hera tried to shake off the déjà-vu feeling as they walked back out into the night. She wasn't sure if the Bridgers would ever get justice, but they could keep trying and hold onto hope.

* * *

"Someone's awake just in time to welcome you guys back." Kanan met them at the ramp, Ezra still looking sleep rumpled on his shoulders and peering over the top of Kanan's head at them. Sabine stood a little behind him, leaning against the wall and holding a caf, looking half awake.

"He's good at that." Hera said dryly, smiling a little. Thinking back to that night made it more obvious how much Ezra had changed since then. He'd grown, for one, and even rumpled his fur was thicker and healthier looking. She would have been hard-pressed to see the scared and lonely little orphan they'd found in the happy Lasat kit riding on Kanan's shoulders.

"How did it go?" Kanan asked, looking between the two of them.

"Found what I hoped to. The Empire didn't get it at least." Zeb held the walking stick up.

Hera wasn't expecting Ezra to startle at that and fling himself off Kanan's shoulders. From Kanan's wince he wasn't expecting it either. Ezra scrambled to Zeb's side, reaching up and saying something demandingly.

"It was your mother's, kit. Which means it's yours now, to keep safe." Zeb spoke tiredly, handing the stick down to him and then starting to herd him inside so the ramp could be closed.

"The house had been undisturbed all this time. Lucky for us." Hera said, closing the ramp behind them.

Ezra fidgeted with the top of the stick, Hera thought he was just playing with it before he spoke up.

"Where's the…" He frowned, finishing the question in Lasani.

"Crystal. They're right here. You know not to unwrap the wrapped ones, right?" Zeb handed over the bag.

"If we're going to discuss anything important we should probably sit down and I need a caf. If we're waiting on that until later then I'm getting some sleep." Hera eyed Sabine's caf speculatively. As if sensing her gaze the Mandalorian held the mug a little closer to her chest plate.

"Why was it so important to retrieve those things?" Kanan was peering at the stick and the bag, looking unimpressed. "It doesn't look like anything we should have had to drop everything to go get."

"We didn't drop anything, and I decide what's a priority and what's not." Hera pointed out.

Zeb rubbed the back of his head. "It's not something I ever thought I'd have to explain. They were Mira's tools, as a wise woman she could do things with them. Don't know what the Empire could do with them, but I'd rather not find out."

"What kind of things would they do?" Kanan questioned.

Hera watched Ezra with the bag. She was tired enough to want to just go get some sleep, discussing things could wait. At the same time she wasn't sure Zeb would want to go over things twice. Ezra had gotten the bag open and pulled out a small handful of crystal points. They were different colors, mostly shades of blue and green with a few yellow and clear ones mixed in. Ezra picked out one of the paler bright blue ones, holding it up and putting the rest back into the bag carefully. Ezra held the one crystal up to Zeb, speaking excitedly in Lasani.

Zeb perked his ears up at that, leaning in closer to listen. Sabine had woken up fully at that too, coming closer, looking over the crystal and Ezra and asking a question. Hera knew Sabine could speak Lasani, but she hadn't heard her do it before. Whatever it was must have been important, and whatever Ezra replied with had both Zeb and Sabine glancing over at Kanan.

"Care to translate for the rest of us?" Hera said it more sharply than she intended. The trip back to the abandoned Bridger's house was more stressful than she'd anticipated.

"Ezra just informed us that this crystal feels exactly like the one Kanan won't let him play with." Sabine arched an eyebrow.

Kanan just looked stunned, staring at the crystal Ezra still held in the palm of his hand. In the dim ship's lighting it almost seemed to be faintly glowing. "You mean that bag's full of kyber crystals?"


	12. Chapter 12

_Ezra just informed us that this crystal feels exactly like the one Kanan won't let him play with." Sabine arched an eyebrow._

 _Kanan just looked stunned, staring at the crystal Ezra still held in the palm of his hand. In the dim ship's lighting it almost seemed to be faintly glowing. "You mean that bag's full of kyber crystals?"_

* * *

"I'm guessing there's a good story behind why you'd have a lightsaber? I'm assuming that's what the crystal's in, from Ezra's description." Sabine said, choosing her words carefully.

Kanan's brain took a minute to catch up. Hera knew about his lightsaber, and Ezra had seen it before he started locking it away from the determined Lasat kitten but Ezra hadn't known the significance of it. Sabine would know full well what a lightsaber was and what it could mean. His first thought was to lie, say he stole it, found it, anything. But if she knew what to look for odds were he'd slip up at some point. Finally he settled on a compromise.

"I'm not a Jedi." Kanan said, trying to make it sound final. "There aren't any, not anymore."

"But there were, once." Sabine looked over him like she was searching for something. "I was a student during the Clone Wars, I saw Jedi on Mandalor. "

"Anytime someone wants to fill me in on this whole 'Jedi' thing go ahead." Zeb grumbled, waving a hand. "I'm guessing it's something important since you all look like Kanan just let it slip he's pregnant."

Hera made a soft choking sound at that and Sabine snorted. "It's nothing like that. The Jedi were sort of like if Wise Women and the Honor Guard combined. "

"Sounds useful." Zeb shrugged slightly.

"Maybe. But if the Empire even thought there was a Jedi on board this vessel, we'd go from a low level enemy of the Empire right to the top tier of the most wanted. Personally I'd rather if they underestimated us." Hera glanced between Sabine and Zeb.

"I can confirm. There are high level bounties out on anyone claiming to be a Jedi or possessing Jedi artifacts. The official story is to protect people from religious charlatans, but a lot of people know better." Sabine said, shaking her head slightly.

"So better to pretend I've never heard the name. I get it." Zeb flicked his ears, looking down at Ezra. "What's this mean for the kit?"

"Right now? Nothing. We keep him safe, same as before." Kanan said firmly.

Hera looked like she wanted to say something, but then she went thoughtful, reaching down to take Ezra's hand. "Let's go get some breakfast for you."

* * *

Kanan rubbed slowly over Ezra's back, getting a soft purr in response. It took some remembering but the techniques came easier than he expected, projecting calm and serenity and keeping his more complex inner thoughts shielded. Ezra responded to it better than he hoped, utterly content to stay sprawled on his chest and relax. When he'd gotten the first chance to get away he'd escaped up onto the top of the ship, sitting down and just staring up at the stars. Lothal nights were calm, the wind blowing steadily and the air chilly but not cold enough to be uncomfortable. He hadn't been terribly surprised when Ezra came looking for him, letting the little Lasat settle in without trying to shoo him back inside the ship. Hera had waited to speak with him privately and asked him if he planned to train Ezra. He'd said he didn't know. She wasn't entirely happy with the answer, he could tell, but she hadn't pushed.

It was the truth, if a simplified version. He didn't know. They both carried dangers, and he wasn't sure yet which would be the better option. If he did nothing Ezra's force abilities might stay quiet, he'd continue being unusually good at reading people and that would be easy enough to explain away as nothing out of the ordinary. They might not stay quiet, making him a danger to himself and others, as well as attracting those who would seek to corrupt him or kill him. Training him could help him hide, learn how to pass as everyone else, keep him from accidentally using his powers in times of stress. It could help him survive, give him an edge in dangerous situations, or it might make him even more of a target for the Empire.

There was also the worry that nagged at him, training him to survive was one thing, but would it stop there? He knew Hera was ambitious, that she dreamed about creating a better galaxy. He admired that, but… He'd been in the center of that kind of ambition before, and it hadn't made anything better. It had eaten up countless lives and left the galaxy broken. What if it happened again? What if he set things in motion to turn Ezra into a weapon against the Empire and used up his life with nothing or worse to show for it?

What if it did help, though? He'd always been taught to look towards the greater good and if any one of his old teachers had gotten wind of these kind of thoughts they'd be horrified. This was why Jedi weren't supposed to form attachments, you started caring about people rather than goals. You had to care about everyone equally, otherwise it led to stories of the past where Force users let entire planets suffer or be destroyed out of selfishness. But none of his old teachers were around to make that kind of judgment, it was only him.

Ezra made a soft cranky sound and with a start Kanan realized he'd gotten so caught up in his thought he's stopped rubbing over his back.

"Sorry." Kanan murmured, scratching slowly through Ezra's hair.

Ezra relaxed back against his chest with a soft purr. "Want to see me shoot?"

"At the target droids? Sure." Kanan patted Ezra's back gently then moved to set him aside so he could get up. He wasn't very good at the whole thinking thing, sitting around thinking things over and over in his head never seemed to accomplish much. He did better at thinking on his feet, actually doing things. Maybe some target practice would clear his head. In the time they'd be up there the moons had set low, the horizon starting to brighten with the approach of dawn. It wasn't as spectacular as some of the planets he'd been on, but it had its charm.

The lack of wind was almost a shock when they went down, heading towards the secondary cargo hold while Ezra detoured to grab his blasters. He hadn't stayed to watch Ezra's training for any significant time, but he'd seen enough to approve of it. Using two blasters was smart, he'd be less likely to favor one hand that way. And despite his quiet worrying, he hadn't been able to catch Ezra using them inappropriately.

Kanan checked over the droids before activating them, letting them scatter as Ezra made his way down to the hold, trotting eagerly and carrying both blasters.

"Ready to show me how good you've gotten with those?" Kanan took his own blaster out, turning the power all the way down to match.

"Ready." Ezra grinned toothily, holding them up and taking cover behind a nearby crate wall.

It was about like Kanan expected, a lot of enthusiasm and shots headed in mostly the right direction, but Ezra's aim was still abysmal.

"You need to focus." Kanan found the words slipping out before he realized what he was saying.

"I am focus." Ezra stuck his tongue out slightly as he tried to aim better, the bolt going through where the droid had been a few moments before.

"Focused." Kanan corrected automatically. "You're relying too much on looking for it, you need to relax some."

"I am. And I'm keeping my eye on it, Sabine said to." Ezra sounded cranky at that and Kanan took a steadying breath, crouching to put his hand on Ezra's shoulder.

"I'm… not explaining this well. Watch me. You look for it, but not really to see it, to know where it is. Once you got it you don't need to keep looking for it. You know it, you feel it out, and you take the shot." Kanan looked for one of the nearby target droids, unholstering his blaster and taking aim and firing it one easy motion. The droid beeped as it settled down towards the ground.

Ezra tried to mimic him, squinting at the other droid and bringing up the blaster quickly. It went wider than the previous shots. Kanan winced, but if anything this made things a lot clearer to him. He'd barely been made a padawan, and odds were good if nothing had happened he'd still have been a padawan at his age and then knights sometimes waited decades before taking a student of their own, if they ever did. He wasn't any sort of teacher, he was barely able to teach him any Basic, much less more complicated and dangerous things.

Then he felt it, like a warm tingle against his fingertips where he had his hand on Ezra's shoulders. Ezra stared unblinkingly at the droid, took aim, and fired. Kanan didn't even need to hear the beep to know it would connect. He'd been there before, spending time after time going over a move and adjusting his weight this way, tuck his arm in a bit closer, turn his foot just so, and wondering if he'd gotten it, wondering if he'd know it he had it right, and then suddenly everything clicking and it just felt right and he couldn't believe he'd ever wondered before, not when it was so obvious now.

Ezra whooped, springing up to peer at where the droid had landed, and the moment was broken.

"Great job." Kanan watched him, trying to project only pride. He was proud, but…

There wasn't any doubt now. Ezra was strong in the Force, there was nothing else that would explain what he felt, and he still didn't have the slightest clue what he was going to do about that.

* * *

Kanan had intended to go looking for Zeb once he handed Ezra off to Sabine for a language lesson .He hadn't expected Zeb to find him, carrying a familiar looking bottle.

"Let me guess, you're going to want to ask a lot of questions and you'll probably need to answer more than a few of mine. Somehow I have the suspicion it'll all go a little easier if we're not both entirely sober, eh?" Zeb held up the bottle.

"I'll agree to that. Let me just grab a cup, your room or mine?" Kanan asked, glad for the opening. There were a great deal of drawbacks to drinking, but just from what he knew of Zeb's history they'd both need the buffering effects. And if either of them accidentally said something hurtful it would be easier to shrug off and blame on the alcohol.

"Does yours have less junk in it?" Zeb asked.

"Definitely." Kanan assured him. He'd helped Zeb and Sabine haul a lot of stuff on board, some of which went into storage but enough had ended up in Zeb's room that he could imagine space was a bit tighter.

"Yours it is then." Zeb started towards the living quarters, not in any sort of rush, and Kanan swung by the galley to grab a cup and try to take a moment to collect his thoughts.

* * *

"I'd say this is a good bit less cluttered." Zeb looked around Kanan's nearly empty room and headed for the bed as the best seat to accommodate him. Kanan didn't argue, pulling out one of the nearby chairs from where it tucked up to store under the small table in his room.

Zeb waited until he was seated before pouring his cup half full before filling his own.

"I guess first we should get the impossible what-ifs out of the way. If he were back on Lasan what would this mean for Ezra?" Kanan asked bluntly.

Zeb snorted and took a swig of his drink. "Don't want to waste any time, do you? Kit acts like he's Asha-touched. Back on Lasan a Wise Woman would confirm it, then he'd get some special teaching. When he got older he'd decide what he wanted to do, and lots of jobs had special rankings for Ashla-touched Lasat. I worked with some of them, focus and discipline is always important, but they took it a step further. Doesn't really help us much though, does it?"

"It does, at least a little. Was there a chance he'd be a Wise Woman like his mother?" Kanan poked at his cup before taking a sip, feeling the liquid burn.

"No." Zeb chuckled at that. "There's a reason the best translation is Wise Woman."

"Alright, well if he'd been found by the Jedi Order we'd talk with his parents or whoever held guardianship over him, and depending on his age we'd talk with him too, and then if everyone agreed he'd be taken to the Temple to be raised and taught among kids like him. When he was old enough he'd be chosen by one teacher for more real experience, frequently leaving the Temple and going out with their teacher to learn by doing. Eventually they'd graduate and become a full Jedi Knight, and possibly a Master." Kanan hoped Zeb was following along, he was nodding like he understood.

"Is that an option, you taking him as a student?" Zeb asked, taking a longer swallow of his drink. "Not like I could teach him much beyond the basics."

"I'm… not sure. There's a lot of reasons why that's a bad idea. I was a padawan… student to just one teacher, for three months." Kanan tried to keep his voice steady, talk about it matter of fact like he was telling a story without letting himself remember any of the details. It worked for the most part, except for a thickness in his throat that he tried to clear, then took a sip to chase it away.

"How long was it supposed to be?" Zeb kept his voice gentle.

"Before the war twenty years was more like it." Kanan tried not to feel bitter, staring down into his cup and then holding it out for a refill. There was a scrap of memory, of finding out how young some padawans were being promoted to Knight and being excited that he wouldn't have to wait a lifetime for it. Now looking back he could see what a terrible sign that had been, throwing kids who still felt the Force made them immortal into battles that more often than not taught them far too permanent a lesson on their own mortality.

Zeb cleared his throat, bringing Kanan back to the here and now. "Karabast. So you have some basic training from years ago, and I have what I know. If he is Ashla-touched he'll need some kind of training, otherwise he could be a danger to himself or others without meaning to be. I know that much."

"He is, I could sense it." Kanan rubbed over the bridge of his nose. "The thing I keep coming back to, is it right to train him? I don't want to… if I put a target on his back and he ends up getting killed… "

"Don't get caught up too much in what might happen. Could wake up tomorrow and the Empire's crumbled." Zeb snorted, taking a sip. "Not likely, but we don't know. Spend too much time on tomorrow's what-ifs and you forget today. "

"And he's too young to take on as a padawan, even before the war, and after that the age went up." Kanan said firmly.

"So we teach him the basics. There's this thing, not sure the word, you clear your mind and relax and it helps you focus, we teach him that and whatever else you know. I'll teach him what I know. And then in four or five years when he's not such a small kit maybe a better teacher than the two of us might show up, eh?" Zeb drained the cup.

Kanan was fairly sure he'd had better arguments than that planned out, but he was getting just tipsy enough it was hard to remember them, especially in the face of Zeb's confidence. "Meditation. I, yeah, I can teach him that. Maybe."

"He's a smart kit, he'll pick it up one way or another. We'll figure it out." Zeb set his cup down, tapping it lightly with his claws.

"I hope you're right. I've got a lot to think about, but yeah. Tomorrow we'll start on that." Kanan stood up, glad that while his head felt a little fuzzy his walk was steady enough as he headed out, heading to the galley to get something to drink without the kick.

* * *

Kanan stopped in the doorway, nearly turning right back around when he saw Hera was already there. She would know a retreat when she saw one though and he steeled himself to get things out of the way.

"Kanan, I haven't gotten a chance to talk with you yet." Hera said, looking him over.

"I know." Kanan rubbed over his face and up, smoothing his hair back. "I'm going to teach him. But not to fight, just how to control himself. Zeb might teach him some fighting though, and he's still learning how to use blasters, but… Yeah. I'll take care of this."

"That's… that's good news." Hera smiled wryly. "I was going to say that the additional holos we found were all teaching ones. Lasan's history, language, arts and literature, everything one would need to give a full education to a kid being raised off Lasan. Sabine already volunteered to help translate them into Basic so that's a good bit of knowledge that won't be lost. But I am very glad you came to a decision on that."

"Oh. Um, yeah. That's great news." Kanan took a deep breath, letting go of some of his tension with it as he started to get himself a cup of water. "I'm going to see if I have to kick Zeb out of my bed and get some sleep."

Hera arched one tattooed eyebrow at that, looking amused. "Not the phrase I was expecting to hear."

"We were drinking together and… and that just makes it worse, doesn't it?" Kanan smiled slightly. "You're teasing me on purpose."

"A little. Everyone's been tense and I'm ready for it to sink in that we're still the same crew we were yesterday, we just know a few more things and overall that's not such a bad thing." Hera finished off the last few bites on her plate, standing to carry it to be cleaned.

"It does make sense," Kanan thought back to previous incidents. "How Ezra always knows if one of us is hurt, or when we're about to arrive back…"

"Or how he's able to get off vent covers that should require a tool set?" Hera smiled.

"Recently or just the past times?" Kanan shook his head. "Don't answer that, I don't want to know."

"Go get some sleep and I won't." Hera put the clean dish away, heading out in the direction of the cockpit.

"Yes, Captain." Kanan half-saluted and then went back to see if his room was vacant yet.

* * *

Kanan slept long enough to shake off the worst of the alcohol's effects and with only a slight dry mouth to show for it. That was easily enough remedied with another cup of water and he went looking for Ezra, not sure if he had already passed the kit's bedtime. He was in luck, nearly running into Hera looking slightly damp and carrying a thoroughly towel-fluffed and night clothes wearing Ezra.

"You're looking better, and you missed the excitement." Hera hoisted Ezra a little higher on her hip.

"Hera stepped on soap." Ezra informed him, with a giggle.

"I kneeled on it and it shot across the room and bounced off the wall and someone thought it was so funny he didn't stop laughing the entire bath." Hera shook her head, smiling as her lekku bounced with amusement. "I wish more people were so easily amused."

"It sounds pretty funny to me." Kanan reached out for Ezra and Hera easily handed over the kit.

"Mmhmm, you want to handle the rest of bedtime?" Hera asked.

"I was hoping to." Kanan let Ezra wiggle around and cling to him, supporting him as he carried him the rest of the way to his room.

"Story?" Ezra asked hopefully once he let go of Kanan's shirt and started snuggling down into the middle of the blankets.

"Of course." Kanan sat on the edge of the bunk, reaching to help tuck the blankets around him, and then he reached into his pocket. "Far away from here in the core worlds there's a planet, Coruscant. A very long time ago a temple was built to be home to all the Jedi in the galaxy…" For half a moment he worried the holocron wouldn't listen to him, not after he'd tried to forget about it for so long, but almost like it had been waiting for this it lifted at his mental command, opening up to form the spires and walls of the Temple out of light.

Ezra was entranced, the light catching and reflecting in bright blue eyes as he hung on every word.

Kanan only stopped talking after his throat grew hoarse, the holocron closing. He wasn't exactly sure when Ezra had fallen asleep, but at some point he must have. Kanan tucked up one of the blankets one more time before he eased up off the bed, putting the holocron back away. He'd expected to feel tense and worried at sharing this, and instead he felt oddly at peace. Tomorrow would be a new day and new lessons and after that it would be up to Ezra to start finding his own path, but he'd be there to prepare him as best he could. It felt something like a new beginning and something like hope and mostly like maybe he was finally ready for this.

* * *

Notes:

And we come to the end. Thank you to everyone who's stuck with me all this time, and to everyone who's finding the fic for the first time. I have a suspicion this may not be all I want to write in this AU, but for now this part of their story is done.


End file.
